


Fire meet Gasoline

by coffeesoul



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alpha!Levi, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Body Modification, Bonding, Character's Name Spelled as Hanji, F/F, M/M, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mikasa Ackerman & Levi Are Siblings, Military Background, Non Binary Hanji, Omega Verse, Omega!Eren, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Titan Shifters, Titan-Haired Eren Yeager, almost everyone is a modified Titan, alpha!reiner, alpha!ymir, beta!annie, future smut, omega!bert, titans are sort of AI
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-04-05 01:32:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 72,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4160574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeesoul/pseuds/coffeesoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Levi... why is your side smoking?” said Mike, pointing at his injured side.<br/>“What-” the Captain looked at his right side: white smoke was rising from his skin. “...the hell!” he exclaimed and proceeded to uncover his injury.<br/>“Levi, are you alright?” When the raven didn’t say anything, Erwin approached him. “There’s nothing here.” He raised his eyebrows “Haven’t you been shoot, like... ten hours ago?”<br/>"Yeah..." Levi nodded mechanically “Got five stitches.”<br/>“This is incredible.” Whispered Hanji, eyes glued to the screens with the paramters of Levi and the young Shifter. The Commander and the Captain turned towards them, shocked. “What happened?”<br/>Hanji grinned, pointing at one of the screens. “Levi, my dearest! You see this waves here?”<br/>“I don’t see a fuck, aside a single red-bluish wave dancing on your stupid screen! You look here and explain why my side’s completely healed, instead!” the raven pointed to his immaculate pale skin.</p><p>Hanji tutted, their eyes shining dangerously “Well, well. It seems you just gained a beautiful Omega Titan, Captain Ackerman!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Captain and the Titan

**Author's Note:**

> Hello guys! Finally my brain delivered a good idea to allow me to write about my OTP! As you may know from Perfect Shadow, I’m a sucker for ABO dynamics and for giving the whole story new twists. I don’t even know what I want to do with this fic, but basically it’s just an excuse for me to write Levi and Eren’s frick-frack!  
> You'll find a lot of dialogues, but dialogues are life!  
> I don’t know if I’ll continue this, so please, be good babies and feed me back!!  
> Tagged explicit for further chapters :P  
> (As usual this is not beta’ed, if you find any error, I’m sorry!)

Levi yawned and his side reminded him with a pang that there was a still fresh wound, that had just been stitched the night before. He cringed but didn’t stop walking. He needed coffee, and he needed it now.

It was his morning ritual and he’d better hurry if he wanted to find it just brewed. The base was still gradually awakening, after one big operation that had involved three squads, aside the Special Operation Squad lead by Levi. The raven soldier had stood in the front lines, as always, and a flying bullet was the worst enemy during a gunfight. Obviously he had his uniform on, provided with bulletproof reinforcement, but those motherfuckers they arrested, trafficked in Titans and he didn’t have one to protect himself with.

Levi _tch_ -ed aloud, startling a couple of soldiers walking along the corridor. They saluted, fearing his anger was directed at them, but the Captain was angry at himself. He had never needed a Titan and never will. He was a veteran, the first to base the Spec Op Squad, Humanity’s Strongest.

No Titan could keep up with him, Hanji’s already lost a lot of their prototypes and Erwin could go suck a dick and made peace with reality, cause Levi _fucking awesome_ Ackerman was no Titan bitch.

Finally he reached the mess hall and neared the coffee pot, his personal Mecca. He sighed and automatically, the line of young men waiting for their own coffee opened to let him pass.

“Captain!”

“Captain Ackerman, sir!”

“Sir!”

“At rest, at rest.” Levi waved the young soldiers with a flick of his wrist and his most bored expression, and thanked again for his fame. He didn’t like the spotlight and was never one to abuse his power –okay, maybe only when Erwin cut his bleach stocks, but right now he was happy to cut the throng. He needed caffeine, since what awaited him were a couple of hours in a boring as ass meeting with Legion higher ups.

He poured himself a generous cup of black liquid, sipping it in religious silence. From the other side of the canteen, he recognized Auruo waving at him. Levi rolled his eyes. So much for having his fix in peace. He switched hand, grabbing the full mug of coffee with his left hand, to favor his injured side, and walked toward the table occupied by the stupid ash-blond man and a petite strawberry-blonde woman.

She smiled warmly at him “Good morning, Captain. Want to join us?”

“Like I could ignore you,” snorted Levi.

“Come on, we know you love us. After last night success, you love us more!” she replied, sliding toward him a plate full of eggs and bacon. Levi thinned his eyes, but Petra had known him for ages and his look was starting to lose its edge around her. So he took his cutlery and took a mouthful of food. It tasted good.

“You’ll need the energy if you’re going to deal with the science freak.” Commented Auruo.

“Don’t remember me, please.” Levi suppressed a shiver “How are you?” he asked Petra.

“Fine, how many time have I told you? My Titan took the most damage, but as you can see” the woman pointed toward Auruo “He’s ready to go. Moblit said they were only superficial injuries and thanks to Hanji’s special care, he’s sparkling new!”

Auruo nodded, showing a smug grin.

“I don’t know how you can look at him in the face every fucking day. Must be some kind of divine punishment for what we do.” Replied Levi, holding his cup of coffee by the rim.

“Come on, we’re highly qualified mercenaries! Every nation has already asked our help to solve their little problems… it’s not like we’re some kind of… thug gang.” Said Auruo.

“What do you know, Titan.” Levi countered, his words lacking any real edge.

“Captain, _you_ ’d know if you agreed to bond a Titan. You could’ve really used one last night! You’re so reckless, sometimes…It’s not so bad!” Petra shrugged, her mood light seeing the usual banter “It’s awkward at the beginning but they’re so useful during battles! And also, during everyday life, too. Hanji said that-“

“Hanji says a lot of things. Most of them, I suggest you to completely ignore. Better, do the opposite!”

“Like what you do, Captain Stubborn?” prompted Auruo again, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oi, you. Now you’ve won the beautiful task to clean Hanji’s lab. And if I can’t reflect on every single surface, you’ll clean their private quarters, too. That clear?” Levi spoke with his usual sultry monotone and Auruo looked back at him dumbstruck. “Now, you dickwad.” He gritted through his teeth. Auruo was out of his chair and hurrying towards the laboratories.

“When will he learn to shut his trap?” Petra sighed, shaking her head. Then she eyed her superior “Captain, you should be resting. Last night was really tiresome and you’ve been injured. All because you’re as stubborn as a mule!”

One of Levi’s eyebrows arched “Excuse you?”

Petra huffed “Let Hanji bond you to a Titan, please! Every time we go out in a mission you’re the one that risks the most! You don’t have a partner, you don’t have a mate that improves your abilities or enhances your regeneration! And yet, if someone has to catch a bullet, guess who’s the winner?”

If it was anyone else speaking at him in such terms, Levi would have already chewed their head off and sent it by mail back home. But Petra was Petra, and that came with a lot of privileges. Some of them, being one of his most reliable soldiers and still being able to walk on her legs after speaking her mind. But Levi had to admit that she spoke in his best interests.

So Levi sighed, slouching his shoulders and immediately straightening again, as he felt his side aching. “Petra… I know that these days Titans are the top of our weapons, but-“

“They’re _humans_ , Captain!” hissed Petra.

“Are you sure? They’re cultivated in labs by freaks like Hanji! They possess strength and regenerating abilities that are out of the ordinary! I won’t be bonded to any Titans by a chip implanted in my brain!”

“That’s not a chip, it’s a vital waves enhancer that allows you and your Titan a better affinity!”

“Fucking exactly, Petra,” hissed in reply Levi “Enhance an affinity! I tried, god knows that I did! But no fucking Titan I tried till now, was even able to train beside me. I got no affinity with whoever, soldier. And that’s it. I’m Humanity’s Strongest even without one of those engineering miracles.” Levi stood abruptly, his coffee long forgotten and his morning already ruined. “Go check on Gunther and Erd, report to me Gunther’s Titan damage an then go help your sorry excuse of a Titan with the cleaning.”

Petra stood, brought her right fist over her chest in salute and left, glaring at her Captain.

 _Fucking perfect_ , thought Levi, wincing again and resting a hand subtly on his right side. He wondered what else would fire his anger that day. But directing his feet toward the meeting room, he knew that it was only a matter of _when_ , because he was sure that Hanji and Erwin were waiting for him just to piss him off.

* * *

 

Hanji went through their papers again, barely containing the excitement. The head of Legion scientific branch paced –more likely jumped, around Erwin’s desk restlessly. The blonde man sitting behind the big mahogany desk sighed.

“Hanji, please. Sit. Levi’s going to arrive soon.”

The scientist grinned maniacally behind their big goggles “Why didn’t you send your Titan to withdraw him? You know that midget has the shortest legs!”

Erwin’s lips curled against his will “You know that Levi would fly, if he saw Mike. He fell for the bait only the first time. Since then, he didn’t trust Mike around a meeting anymore.”

“Argh! That minion enjoys making me twisting my panties in wait!” Hanji howled dramatically.

“That’s too gross an image for this freaking early hour, Shitty Glasses,” said Levi, opening wide Erwin’s office door without knocking. “Don’t ever mention your underwear in my presence again, if you want to preserve two legs in which tuck those on. No wait, don’t speak. I don’t wanna know what you actually do with your underwear.” The raven grimaced at the thought.

The blonde head of Legion knew Levi and Hanji since forever and such an entrance was considered normal. If it was any other soldier, Erwin would have told Mike to kick them asses out of the base and make sure they sank in the sea. Sometimes, the fact that they were on a military secret base lost in the ocean, was useful.

Mike, Erwin’s Titan, stood at his right and as Levi entered, sniffed the air as usual. When he smirked and nodded, Erwin knew he was safe to bring on the issue which he called his Captain for. He entwined his fingers in front of his mouth and greeted Levi.

“Welcome, Captain. I hope your side’s not hurting too much. Please sit and let Hanji update us on the data about last night mission.”

Levi snorted and took place in one of the two leather armchairs facing Erwin’s desk. “Get it over with, Spectacles, I have a lot of documents awaiting for me.” He looked at his blonde mountain of a friend, guilty of delivering him all that wastepaper.

Hanji was grumbling since Levi entered the room, completely ignored by the three men “You are the worst! You’re a bossy little thing you know that?!” they pointed to the raven, that found his nails a lot more interesting than the scientist’s words. “But I know that what I’ll say will spike even your attention! So, let’s begin!”

Levi used only half of his brain to listen to Hanji’s report about the damages inflicted to buildings and streets, inevitably leading to complaints from the heads of the nation that hired Legion’s services this time. That was collateral damage. Levi already had the list of the injured and dead soldiers and that was what mattered.

“But, the very important thing that we achieved last night –aside wiping that stupid gang and their human trafficking, was that we intercepted their last cargo. Aside from women and some children, we also found bootleg Titans components and vital waves enhancers.”

“That’s nothing new, Hanji. What kind of components were they?” asked Erwin, looking over a list of components that Hanji passed him.

“Nothing too advanced, Commander. But they had a couple of modified Titans, too.”

At that, Erwin raised his head and his impressive eyebrows knitted together “What kind of modified Titan?”

Hanji grinned and Levi knew they would throw themselves into one of their Titan lesson “As you know, we are aware of the existence of three types of Titan. The basilar one, substantially a droid with an enhanced modified brain. But that models are obsolete, for they remain a mere machine –even if technologically advanced. Then we have Titans like Mike, or Auruo and Erd of Levi’s squad, that are humans with modified DNA and enhanced with mechanicals parts by engineers and physiologists. These are the most common types of Titans-“

“Please, for the love of god someone stop them, we already know that soldiers with severe injuries are asked if they want to become Titans by the freaks of your lab. What’s new about this?” commented Levi, his expression as bored as ever. Once Hanji started to blah blah about their beloved Titans, there were no means to made them shut the fuck up.

“ _What’s new_ , my constipated friend, is that we found a Titan of the _third type_ between the ones we recovered! And your attitude would greatly improve if you would swallow your stupid pride, extract your head from your tight ass and get laid! Thank you!”

Mike snorted and even Erwin couldn’t stop his lips from curling upwards.

Levi glared at Hanji with a ten thousands butcher’s knives look, and murmured “Eyebrows, don’t bother calling the funeral service, I’ll provide myself in digging the deepest grave for this walking dickbag.”

“What kind of Titan did your squad find, Hanji?” asked instead Erwin, ignoring the banter between his two friends.

Hanji’s goggles shined under the artificial light of Erwin’s office “Oooh, Commander, you’ll like what I got! Now if you would follow me, I’d rather show it to you!” they grinned and motioning for him, Mike and Levi to follow, exited the office and powerwalked towards the laboratories, always explaining excitedly “It’s something that we rarely see. At the base we only have four others like this one! And as always, I don’t have any clue at how someone could even think of making such a being, least how they could actually create it!”

“Are you referring to the Titan Shifters?” asked Erwin, walking with his arms behind his back. Mike followed in silence, listening at everything the mad scientist said. Levi was the last of the party, his arms crossed over his chest and, even if he absolutely hated to go down to Hanji’s laboratories, he understood that the situation was important and required his presence.

“Exactly!” answered Hanji, stopping before the doors of the elevator that would bring hem two levels under the ground.

“You are one of the most brilliant scientist of this age and dispose of the most advanced technologies, yet some motherfucker out there is able to create a Titan Shifter… Isn’t that ironic?” commented Levi, but beyond his jibe, there was apprehension. They still hadn’t fought any other Titan Shifter during their missions, but they knew the risk existed. Luckily they would be ready when the time came.

Hanji’s expression  went thoughtful “Titan Shifters are the strongest type, but extremely unstable. We were able to understand that they need to be bonded to a human to function correctly and not go crazy, but each one is too different to understand them! Think about the first we found: Ymir already knew she wanted to be bonded to a certain type of human, and so she chose private Historia Reiss. That one was obviously an Alpha. Then we found Bertholdt and Reiner, and the one who created them thought it would be _funny_ to bond two Titans together! Fortunately, one of them is Alpha, the other an Omega, so they kind of balance.” Hanji shook their head and when the elevator doors opened with a _ding_ , the group entered the metallic box.

“But the one you bonded to my sister wasn’t as dangerous as the others. She almost seemed uninterested in what would happen to her.” Said Levi.

“That’s because you weren’t there when we conducted the tests on Annie!” snorted Hanji, laughing “You didn’t see her full strength and I assure you that she is the most instable of all, till now. We needed a very strong human to bond her, but since you’re an ass and always decline, we could only ask Mikasa. Luckily, the two of them are surprisingly similar and Annie accepted your sister quite fast. So, we concluded that Annie was a Beta.”

“And this one, Hanji? Any idea?” asked Erwin, looking at the brighten buttons of the elevator. The doors opened again and they walked into an open space filled with long desks, their surface doused with tubes and chemicals, all white tiles and flashing neon lights. Everyone wore a white lab coat, with different degrees of protections – gloves, masks and even helmets. The voices were hushed and Levi felt worse than entering a hospital wing. He remembered that here were kept a lot of super military secrets and that Hanji was the responsible of all that. He was proud of his friend, not that he would ever admit it to any living soul.

Hanji kept walking past the tables, dismissing all the people that stopped to salute the three biggest charges in Legion. “Keep on working, don’t mind us!” they said, and stopped before a heavy reinforced door at the end of the lab. They tapped a code over the small keyboard near the door, scraped their badge in the slot and shifted their goggles to let the security program read their retina. Once the door opened, Hanji lead their three partners along another sterile corridor, with blue suffocating lights.

“I really don’t know. We found him in a sort of suspension sleep and still hasn’t woke up – luckily. We don’t know anything about him, so the longer he sleeps, the lesser possibilities of him going nuts are. We analyzed his brain waves and conducted a physical examination. He looks as human as all the other Titan Shifters. More human than our modified Titans. We couldn’t find any trace of mechanics inside him.” Hanji’s lips were a thin line.

“What.” Said Levi. It wasn’t a question, he rarely saw his bat-crazy friend so worried.

“From his brain waves and his DNA samples, I found that he’s extremely instable. Like, ten times more than Annie! This is really cool, because that means he’s very strong as well, but…”

“But it also says that he have to be bonded immediately. To a very strong human being.” Finished Erwin, who already knew most of the things Hanji said.

Levi’s head whipped with such a force that they all heard a crack “What?!”

They finally arrived at the end of the corridor, and Hanji repeated the same procedure to open the door at the end of it. When they passed the double iron door, Levi was still standing in the corridor “WHAT. THE. FUCK!” he repeated, fuming. He stomped inside the laboratory room, so different from the other one – this was almost dark, full of computers screens and _beeps_ and _ticks_ coming from machines of the like you can find inside an intensity cure wing of a hospital. It gave Levi the chills.

The raven was distracted from his fury by the squad of white coats that worked restlessly in a smaller room, separated by a big reinforced glass, around a bed. He could see that all the wires and little tubes connected to the beeping machines came from the small body that lay under the scientists’ hands.

“He’s an Omega.” Levi almost jumped when he realized that his legs brought him in front of the glass that separated the main laboratory from the smaller room with the bed. He turned to see that Hanji had spoken to him, a small smile over their lips. Levi’s brow furrowed.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you have to know,” answered Erwin, his expression somber, his light blue eyes focused on the scene in front of them “Once he wakes up, he’ll start to decompose, his brain rotting and his sanity with it. We need someone to bond him, Levi. He’s too precious to be sacrificed.” When the Commander turned to Levi, his eyes were sad.

Levi was speechless. He looked beyond the glass again, at the Titan laying over the bed, still unconscious.

He was tall, his figure lithe and his skin a luscious caramel that stretched over a hint of taut muscles. His head rested in abandon, his wild mop of hair the color of chocolate covering his eyes, but Levi could still see the greek profile of his nose and the strong jaw. He looked painfully young. And wild.

“What did you say again?” whispered Levi. He didn’t know why, but in front of such a monster… well, now Levi had to admit that the young boy seemed nothing but. He seemed _volatile_. He didn’t belong in this sterile rooms, tested on like a mouse. He belonged to the forests and the ocean that rounded their island and the hot sands of the desert…And instead here he was, _bent by his creator’s idiocy, who didn’t give a shit about him-_ Levi couldn’t find it in himself, to be angry at Hanji and Erwin anymore. Not for wanting to save _him_.

Levi’s stormy blue-gray eyes were fixed on the Titan, so he didn’t notice Hanji’s smile broadening “He’s an Omega. And as you know, they’re the most instable Dynamic. I suppose that he’s just been turned into a Titan, otherwise his state of deterioration would have been worse. Moblit has tended to him all night, barely managing to stabilize the boy. When we found him, he was at his limits.”

“Are you saying that he’s rotting in this very instant?!” Levi’s OCD was screaming at him to run with all his might and never turn back. “I don’t wanna be near a decomposing corpse!”

Hanji’s goggles flashed again and in the dim light Levi knew that they were Victor Frankenstein’s wasted offspring “Ooohh, but hear this! It was enough to attach him to the basic life support machines and -bam! Your Titan Shifter regained his gorgeous aspect! He’s got the most amazing healing abilities I’ve ever seen!”

“Stop drooling, you pervert,” said Levi, putting some distance between the mad scientist and himself.

“Oh, but wait to look at his eyes, Levi! They’re so beautiful, you’d want to gouge them out and eat them!” Hanji was literally vibrating.

“Ew, gross!”

“Levi,” said Erwin again, his voice grave “Please. This time we need your help with this one. Mikasa’s already bonded and so is everyone in your squad. I would do it myself but…” Mike snorted again and murmured something along “Not a chance in hell.” Erwin smiled at the big man next to him. Then turned again to Levi “I know what I’m asking you.”

Levi looked again over the young Titan and sighed “Then don’t ask me. Just give the command.” Levi was a lot of things, and loyal and trusty of Erwin’s judgement were some of his strongest points.

Erwin didn’t reply, but his lips curved in a sort of thank-you-I’m sorry smile.

Hanji spoke again and approached Levi with an odd strip of leather in their hands. One of its sides was covered in chips and electronic parts, that sent the smallest luminescent sparks and that connected through a series of wires to one of Hanji’s screens. “Very well! Now that we all stopped tip toeing around Levi’s bonding, let’s get down to business! Before we can think of bonding my two favorite kittens, I have to test if you two are compatible.”

Levi arched one of his eyebrows “And wearing a fetish leather leash will help you understand? I refuse to be a guinea pig for your kinks, you Shits-for-brains.”

“Aw, aren’t you adorable! No, jackass, even if one day I’ll be able to take you by surprise and test everything and anything on you just for fun, now I’m serious. This collar is connected to the Titan’s neck. It will link your vital waves so we can register their resonance.” They pointed to a screen at their back “The more the waves are similar, the more you two are compatible. So stop wasting everyone’s time and put this on!”

Levi grumbled but obeyed, fastening the device to his neck so that the electronic part was in contact with his skin. He looked at Hanji passing the order to Moblit, her first assistant, who was standing near the Titan’s head. Once the man gave the sign, Hanji turned to the screen to analyze the results.

Levi was still looking at the boy and when he felt a light buzz under his skin, running down all along his spine, he saw the Titan Shifter take a deep breath and finally laying on the bed like he was peacefully sleeping, no more a corpse waiting to be buried. Beyond the glass, Moblit and his squad noticed it too, and began to run right and left to understand what was happening.

“Levi…why is your side… smoking?” the raven, still confused by what he’s seen, turned toward Mike, that was pointing at his injured side.

“What the hell are you saying?” but when the Captain looked at his right side, there was white smoke rising from his skin. “Whoa!” he exclaimed, ignoring the furious beeps that were increasing in volume around him and proceeded to uncover his injury.

“Levi? Are you alright?” When he didn’t say anything, fixing his side like an idiot, Erwin approached the raven to see what was wrong. “There’s nothing here.” He raised his eyebrows “Levi… haven’t you been shoot, like… ten hours ago? Where’s the hole of the bullet?”

“Eight hours and twenty minutes ago.” Replied Levi mechanically, raising slowly, very slowly his head to look Erwin in the eyes. “And yes, I got five stitches.”

“This is… incredible.” Whispered Hanji at their back. The Commander and the Captain turned towards them, shocked.

“What happened?”

Hanji grinned, pointing one of the screens. “Levi, my dearest! You see this waves here?”

“I don’t see a _fuck_ , aside a single red-bluish wave dancing on your stupid screen! You look here and explain why my side’s completely healed, instead!” the raven pointed to his immaculate pale skin.

Hanji tutted, their eyes shining dangerously “Well, well. It seems you just gained a beautiful Omega Titan, Captain Ackerman!”


	2. Beautiful Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He took a deep breath and prayed to every known god to give him the strength to face the Titan brat. Because as things were now, he would end up either strangling him in his sleep, or shoving the boy up a wall and trail his tongue over that caramel skin, just to taste if it was as sweet as it seemed.  
> Both solutions were bad, he supposed, so he hoped that the night would bring counsel.  
> And his sanity back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand here's the second chapter, my darlings!!  
> First and foremost, I have to hug and kiss every single one of you babies that left kudos or comments <3 you are the reason why I'm keeping up with this, because... I still don't know what the heck I'm doing here!!  
> Anyway, feed me back and let me know what kind of direction do you want to take, we're together on this sail!
> 
> (What are you saying? All my titles take from crappy pop songs? Yes, I know and I'm sorry -_-)

Levi knew that Hanji was crazy. Erwin could insist all he wanted and call it genius, but the raven knew that they must have fallen from the high chair at the tender age of two. Or maybe their unlucky parents tried to get rid of them throwing the oddball from a rock, like they used to do in Sparta to preserve humanity, but Hanji resisted, because they had the vitality of a cockroach.

Anyway, Levi was trying to process the obscure words that they spit, because sure enough his brain wasn’t cooperating. _Who the fuck gained what?_

“What the hell- what are you saying, Shitty Glasses?!” asked Levi, still shocked.

Hanji sighed, and resigned themselves to explain “Over the screen that records the Titan’s and your vital parameters, you can see only one wave because your two vital waves are overlapping. You are completely compatible! This rudimental external connection was enough for you to stabilize the Omega Titan and for him to heal you… Levi, imagine what you two could do, once bonded!” they were literally vibrating.

The raven seemed unfazed. He turned to the Commander. “Erwin, translate in human language.”

Erwin’s expression was absorbed, surely thinking ahead of all the pros and cons of the situation. “Basically, you can bond the Titan without risk of body rejection. Your union will be highly proficient for both the parts involved. We’ll gain another invaluable asset to our ranks, hopefully it will help us in the study of Titan Shifters and finally _you_ ” the Commander gave a side glance to his raven friend “Won’t risk your life every time you go out on a mission.”

Levi was able to unfasten the collar that connected him to the sleeping Titan and slowly chewed Erwin’s words. His anger flared again, but he was a man of reason, of cold decisions. He shared Erwin’s sense of duty and responsibility. Levi understood he had to do this, even if he absolutely loathed the idea to share even his quarters with a stranger, let alone his whole life – and they were speaking about a filthy Titan, coming from only god knows where.

He steeled himself “If we have to do this thing, let’s just do it and go on with our lives.”

Unexpectedly, Mike spoke “It’s not so simple, Captain. Of course, the fact that you and the Titan are compatible speeds things up, but you’ll have to undergo an operation. The definitive vital waves enhancer is a chip that has to be implanted under your skin.” Mechanically, the big blonde Titan scraped the back of his neck, where Legion used to implant the chip “And then comes the fun.” He smirked, looking at Erwin.

“What. What fun.” Levi was pissed and was starting to get anxious. He didn’t like unknown things. His eyes darted from Erwin to Mike and vice versa. But Hanji spoke first with a singing voice.

“Weeeell, you and your Titan will have to begin your life together! Move in together and train, eat and sleep! You’ll have to learn from each other how to make your bond work.” They were clapping their hands.

“Okay, goodbye. I’m done with you freaks. Let the kid rot for all I care, bond him to the first kamikaze you find out there.” Levi marched towards the heavy door, only to feel strong arms tugging at him.

“Sorry Captain. Commander’s orders.” Mike’s deep voice was uncomfortably near to Levi’s ear, the blonde Titan wrapping his arms under the raven’s armpits to lift him up. Levi was dumbstruck, Mike had never been one to challenge him.

“If you want to find your fucking nose still attached to your face, you’d better-“ Levi’s promise of death was interrupted by Mike, that turned suddenly toward the glass separating their room from the Titan’s.

Hanji was in front of him in a blink of an eye, holding a strange transparent masks that promptly lay over his nose and mouth “This is anesthetic gas. You’ll feel very tired, don’t fight it and sleep. I’m sorry Levi…but I’m not sorry!” they said gleefully.

Levi’s eyes were already heavy, finding every blink to be an effort. “You sons of a bitch I’ll skin you alive and sell your stupid meatsuit at the first harbor market I find, I promise you I’ll come back I…” the last words were a slurred nonsense and then Levi was out as a light.

“Proceed Hanji. Give Moblit the signal and implant that damn chip into Levi’s neck.” Erwin massaged his temples with his fingers. “Mike, bring Levi inside the operation room, then come back. We have more serious work to do, than convincing your stubborn Captain to take a mate.”

“Erwin. He’ll kill us in our sleep, you know? If- if something goes wrong during the operation, he’ll come back as a ghost to haunt our base and piss in our coffee!” Now that Levi couldn’t see them, Hanji was slightly panicking.

The Commander dismissed their worries with a flick of his wrist “ Don’t mind his threats, you know him. He’s more bark than bite. Anyway, I’ll ask Mike to keep an extra eye over your lab security.” The blonde smiled at his head scientist, reassuringly. That was enough for Hanji, that nodded and rolled up the sleeves of their white coat.

“Aye, aye, Commander! Leave it to me! You’ll have your Captain back in a blink of an eye, rested, bonded and blood thirsty!”

* * *

 

“Are you regretting your decision?” Mike’s voice interrupted Erwin’s train of thoughts. He realized he had been reading the same line for the past twenty minutes. The Commander sighed and leant against the backrest of his chair.

“No.” he’s voice and expression said otherwise. The big blonde Titan stopped his work over papers to listen to Erwin “I know that this could be misunderstood and taken as power abuse, or whatever you’d like to call it. But all I’m doing –all I’ve tried to do for the last ten years, is to keep Levi safe. A Titan can be your work partner if your vital waves are compatible” he shrugged “and that would be enough! He could be safer and go on with his life as usual. All our high officers are bonded to a Titan to assure their safety on the battlefield. It’s not like your assigned Titan must  be your life’s mate. If you get along beside work, that’s even better.”

“But this is no usual Titan, Erwin. You bonded him to an Omega Titan Shifter. That’s high maintenance, man.” Mike didn’t want to pry, but he knew Erwin like the back of his hand and he knew when the Commander needed to voice his thoughts.

“Yeah, well, that was unexpected.” Erwin’s imposing eyebrows knitted together “But Levi would still be the best option to bond such a Titan, being Legion’s strongest. After I saw his compatibility with the new Shifter, I did what I had to as the Commander of Legion. Unfortunately, those kind of decisions often go against my personal ones.” He rubbed his eyes and when he reopened them, they were focused and full of purpose “I gave him an order and Levi had agreed. That’s it. He’s too good a soldier and I don’t deserve his loyalty, but if he and his Titan can create a strong bond, thee both of them would gain the best partner possible. Let’s only hope that they will get along.”

Mike nodded and a little smile curved the big Titan’s lips. The Commander lowered his head over papers again and so did he.

* * *

 

_Bip – bip – beeeep. Pause._

_Bip – bip – beeeep. Pause._ Rinse and repeat.

He swore that as soon as his stupid body was going to obey him again, Levi would break down that damned beeping machine and shove it up the ass of the first person he saw. Damn, he felt like shit. If only his body wasn’t so heavy… He lay face down, feeling like a tractor ran over him, all his body prickling and treaded by soft electric quakes, his limbs numb. In the dark behind his eyelids, he could tell there was a white flashing light right above him and after some time, when his head was finally able to tune out all that beeping hell, he realized he wasn’t alone.

Someone was breathing near him. The sound was rhythmic and steady and Levi imagined soft puffs of air against his face. _Fucking disgusting._

That was his thoughts until he regained power over his lids, because when he opened the eyes, the first thing he saw was the last thing he expected.

Next him, on a sad hospital bed like the one he lay on, was the Titan brat he had a glimpse of before. Being so near, the Captain noticed the boy was tan, his lips slightly parted forming a perfect pink cupid arch. His hair was shoulder length and messy. His bangs covered part of rather masculine eyebrows, obscuring quite large eyes with long lashes and Levi had absolutely to stop that fucking train before it completely derailed.

Between his scattered thoughts, one memory hit him: did Hanji really bonded the two of them? Levi trailed his eyes on the Titan Shifter’s neck and – damn, there it was. The Titan’s neck was bandaged. And the raven was sure that he had a similar patch on his.

That useless glasses freak, as soon as Levi was able to walk he would make sure that they- and why was the Titan opening his eyes? _No no no go back to sleep, sleep forever and don’t ever wake up- fuck him sideways into tomorrow._ Yeah, maybe the anesthetic was playing fuck with Levi’s mind, but if those weren’t the most outrageously gorgeous eyes on this part of the universe, than please god help him.

The Titan Shifter batted his lashes over those pools of vibrant green, blue, who cared? Those irises were the illegitimate child of the clearest sky and the purest mountain lake. And Levi had to tell Hanji to sell that fucking anesthetic, because if these were the effects, that stuff was _good_.

“Who’re ya?” the voice coming from the monster was rough with disuse and not so young. His eyes were unfocused, like Levi’s.

The raven gaped, because his mind was a mess and he was distracted by the prickling sensation coming from the newly implanted chip on his neck. “…Levi.” speaking was so difficult! “You’re ‘kay. Safe. Sleep. “ And where the hell were all of Hanji’s minions when they were needed?!

The Titan Shifter’s eyes studied Levi for some time, then he started to blink slowly and with a small nod he was asleep again. The itching sensation quieted and Levi didn’t even realize he was closing his eyes too, strangely comforted by the presence of the Titan.

The next time Levi’s eyes opened, he awoke in his room, in his bed, a pissed Mikasa sat by his side. A bored Annie on the background.

“What.” Not a question, but a demand. He sat on his bed, his head floating in dizziness and a sore ache in his neck. That annoying prickle ever present under his skin.

“You slept like a log for twelve hours, brother,” said Mikasa “I thought Hanji brainwashed you. You never sleep so much.” She shrugged. ”Then I might have heard a conversation between Armin and Hanji and come to know that you’ve been bonded.”

“I still think that brainwashing’s the only thing that can explain why he agreed to get a Titan.” Snorted Annie, her face a mask of boredom, but her eyes were larger than usual.

Levi grimaced at the memory and brought a hand over his neck. Yep, sore and definitely bandaged.

“So it’s true?” asked his sister, arching her eyebrows.

If all this situation didn’t concern him, Levi would laugh at the thought that the three kings of poker face were shocked enough to lose their composure. Levi cleared his throat “I suppose so.” He felt like the mop he used to clean the main hall. Twelve hours of pharmacological induced sleep would mess anyone up.

“Where is that walking terror?” he asked.

“Hanji? They’re in the lab running some experiments over the new Titan. _Your_ Titan.” Answered Mikasa. “I’m curious to know what kind of threat did they use to make you agree, but maybe a direct order from your dear Commander was enough.” She sighed, then she rested a hand over her brother’s arm “Are you feeling all right? Do you want me to accompany you down to the labs?”

The raven felt a strange heat bubbling in the pit of his stomach at the thought of the mad scientist alone with the Titan kid “No. I’ll shower and then go speak with that fuckface. How dare they put their greasy hands on what’s mine?” Levi grumbled, scratching at his arms, then his waist.

He didn’t notice it until Annie spoke “Do you have any problem? Scabies, maybe?” she was grinning.

“Shut it, Titan, or I’ll drop your ass at Hanji’s, instead the stupid brat’s.” Mikasa hit him over his arm, using her knuckles.

“Leave my Titan alone. Annie, what’s his problem?” the black haired girl turned to her blonde mate.

“It’s the bond. At the beginning it’s very strong, don’t you remember? It compels you to _physically_ be near your partner, because the enhancer chip has to phase over your vital waves. Even if it’s technology, the chip merges with the body, but it requires some time even if we’re speaking of highly advanced nanomachines –and that’s why they thought it was funny to call us Titans.” Annie rolled her eyes.

Levi turned to his sister “So… it happened to you too?” Mikasa nodded.

“It’s strange, but if you stay with your Titan enough, the bond will… stretch, allowing you to regain your usual lonely life. But for the time being…”she stood from his bed and with an amused look she added “I’ll bring a spare mattress to your room. And some of my clean clothes, I know you won’t ever offer yours. But for now, you’ll have to share at least your quarters.”

That was a nightmare. The more Levi thought about it, the more he was convinced. He showered and didn’t concern himself with changing the bandage on his neck. He was powerwalking down to Hanji’s cave, they would provide him with a new gauze.

Levi inserted his own secret code to pass the security doors of the lab (every high officer had one), trying to ignore the insistent itch that plagued him. He found himself again into the second lab, but now behind the glass there wasn’t a bed anymore, but a sort of gym. And the Titan kid was currently running on a treadmill, giving his _surprisingly broad and toned back_ to Levi, that was _not_ drooling at the show.

“Are you done perving on Eren?”

Levi turned to see Hanji’s spectacles shining in the dim computer room, grinning.

“What the hell, Goggles, stay back!” the raven jumped to the side and then “…Eren?”

“Uh uh uh. Yes, Eren Jaeger! The name of your Titan.” Hanji thinned their lips in a reprimand “How come you don’t know his name? I thought I taught you better, Levi, you two are bonded!”

The Captain groaned, letting his head fall back “First and last time I saw him, he was unconscious. Then, you tricked me and fucked with my brain, knocking me out for a day! Sorry if I forgot manners and didn’t ask his fucking name! And what are you making him do, running like a madman?”

Hanji clapped a hand over their forehead “Well in this case, let’s get you two acquainted!” and they exited the computer room, directed to a door that gave access to the space behind the glass, motioning to one of their scientists to let them pass “And for your information, I’m taking basic test on his wellbeing…after all, yesterday he was dying and today he’s in perfect form! Isn’t that amazing?”

Once inside, Hanji approached the running Titan and Levi could see that a lot of wires and cables were attached to his waist and other machines that recorded his parameters.

“Ehi, Eren! You can stop running, sweetie. I got a surprise for you!” Hanji called and the moment the Titan Shifter stopped and hopped down the treadmill, Levi knew he was doomed.

Because the monster that was walking towards them wasn’t supposed to look so normal, so human. His sweat covered skin didn’t have to look like melting caramel, but utterly gross. Levi wanted to be growled at, maybe insulted by that mouth, that instead was splitting in a grin. And those damned eyes… were definitely going to haunt him.

Levi Ackerman shivered. He didn’t even know that he liked what he was seeing until he got it before him. He was no virgin, not by a long shot, but all he thought about attraction was that it was a physiological reaction, a need to be satisfied. Not a pull of such strange intensity.

“Who’s this shorty, Hanji?” the boy asked, wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

And there it was. The fucking wall that ended Levi’s fantasy speed racing, smashing his poor brain against reality.

Levi snorted and walked in front of the Titan. Even if he was a good ten centimeters smaller, he could tell that the brat was effected by his presence. Good. “This _shorty_ , you stupid sack of meat, is the poor bastard that has to deal with your shit from now on, _so_. If you like your tongue where it is, I strongly recommend to keep it knotted up to your ass. Is that clear, Titan?” he hissed, his eyes sharp.

Eren arched his eyebrows, drawing back without noticing but soon he squared his shoulders, to answer with the same hostility. “Ehi, chill, who spit into your coffee? What’s your problem?”

“You, are.” Hissed Levi again, tightening his arms against his chest to keep them from strangling the gorgeous Titan idiot.

Eren was about to reply, when Hanji launched between the two, physically interrupting the banter “Aaand that’s enough for now. I’ll take it from here, yes?” They cleared their throat “Eren, this is Levi Ackerman, the strongest soldier of Legion, Captain of the Special Operation Squad and, like he already tried to say, your bonded human.” The scientist looked at Levi with a pleading expression: _calm down and please hear me out_ , it said. “Captain, this is Eren Jaeger. He’s twenty-two, and was studying at Shiganshina University and working part time at a gym. Until a month ago, that is, when he was kidnapped and turned into a Titan.”

Levi arched one of his eyebrows. That was a really normal life for a Titan Shifter. All the other Titan Shifters remembered only excerpts of their life before their transformation, but this boy was just turned, maybe he could give Legion intelligence some useful information “Does he remember how it happened?”

Hanji shook their head “Not precisely. He had some time to digest his change, but he remembers few things, bits of information that I’d like to explain to Erwin and you. But not now. Now we have your bond to work on!” they were excited again.

Levi sighed, already drained. He was about to ask Hanji what they still wanted from him, when Eren interrupted.

“Excuse me… Why don’t you start explaining me about all this Titan thing?!” he was worried and annoyed, the raven could see the fire deep in those teal eyes. The boy had a temper, for sure. “I mean, I know that someone did something to me, after all I wasted a month locked in some run-down basement, but the people that ‘took care’ of me” he air quoted “spoke a foreign language and didn’t tell me much.” The boy was frustrated, but Levi thought he was coping well with all this matter. _Too well_ , in Levi’s opinion. Maybe the true shock had yet to hit him, but the Captain’d make sure to keep an eye on the kid.

“Aw, you’re right, honey! I’ll give you the basic notions now, but tomorrow you’ll meet the other Shifters we have in this base and then we’re going to explore the amazing possibilities of you precious things!” And so Hanji launched themselves again in a long explanation about Titans. Levi tuned them out and sat on a stool, letting his brain run over all the things he had to do and the papers that still awaited on his desk.

Hanji pulled him out of his head with an abrupt movement, catching him by the collar of his white button up. “Levi! You showered!”

“Yeah.” he drawled “Some people use to do that. You should try, sometimes, they say it’s healthy.” and batted their hand away.

“But you soaked the injure on your neck! You always do that and now it will take more time to heal…”they whined, turning an exasperated look at Eren, who assisted at the scene completely unaffected and still musing upon all the information Hanji gave him on his new condition. “Unless… Eren come here. I need your help.”

The brunet cut the distance and cocked his head “What for?”

“Give me your hand.” Eren obeyed and Hanji took it, just to lay the appendage over the fresh cut on Levi’s neck, where the chip was. Levi tried to resist –“He’s drenched in sweat, don’t you dare!” but the tanned boy grinned evilly and cupped the Captain’s pale nape.

Both Levi and Eren breaths caught in their throats, their backs straightened with the sudden jolt that run down their spine at the contact. Levi’s neck started to smoke again, prickling funnily. Like it happened with his side. He snapped his head to see Eren partially closing his eyes and letting his head fall back, parting his lips and fucking blushing – Levi was sure that image was going make him good company in the lonely nights.

“Oooh, la la!” Hanji jumped in happiness “You two are amazing! Did you see that, Levi?” they were shaking the raven and Eren retracted his hand, bringing it against his chest and covering it with the other, his head slightly tilted to the ground so that his messy hair covered his eyes.

“W-hat was…H-hanj-i l-let me go!” finally Levi got away from their grasp and fixed his eyes on the Titan Shifter. Of- _fucking_ -course he saw that. The image of _pure voluptuousness_ that the tan monster got from healing his neck was something highly suggestive. Levi raised his hand and touched his neck, the skin there was completely smooth and healed.

“Even the itchy sensation it’s gone…” he mused.

“Y-you too?” asked Eren, somehow recomposing himself “Since I woke up, I kept scratching myself and nothing I did, made it better…” he turned to Hanji, expecting some kind of explanation.

The mad scientist was still fangirling over the pink blush that tinted Eren’s cheek and they knew Levi well enough, to be sure that under his poker face, the raven was just as affected. But they didn’t press the matter. _For now_. “Don’t worry, honeybun, I think that sensation was the bond trying to keep you two together. Initially you’ll have to be very close to let the chip phase.”

Levi was expressionless as usual, but Eren grimaced.

“Aw, come on, I know that neither of you asked for this, but… we’re all in the same boat, yes?” cheered Hanji “Captain, why don’t you take Eren to see the base and maybe eat something? He’s been down here since yesterday… I’ll see you both again tomorrow to check on you.” They smiled.

“Wait, are you saying that you put the brat on that treadmill after being in a coma for weeks and without making him eat anything?!” Levi stood and addressed Eren “Come on, kid, I’ll take you to the canteen and then to take a shower. You need it, if you don’t want to end up like this one.” And he pointed to Hanji. Then he turned to his heels and exited the lab room.

Eren put on his shirt and looked at Hanji, still upset for being bossed around and half worried.

“Go. The Captain may be a demanding asshole, but he’s caring and a good person at heart. But if you feel lonely and need someone to complain to for the stick that he has up in the ass, come find me, buttercup!” and they waved enthusiastically at the boy.

Eren had been kidnapped and turned into a monster, was confused and didn’t even know where he was! On top of all, now he had to deal with that pompous ass of a Captain that surely hated his guts- oh.

“Captain…” the raven was waiting for him at the door, even if there wasn’t any other way to exit the labs.

“Are you coming or not? We don’t have all day,” he said, but the Titan Shifter noticed that even if his wording was very direct –almost rude, it lacked any real edge. Maybe Hanji was right. So Eren took a good breath and hurried behind his new partner, at least happy to feel finally good enough to stand alone since those madmen turned him into a monster. Eren didn’t like the thought of being a Titan Shifter, nor the fact that he woke up bonded to a man he didn’t know and that was socially constipated. But he realized that here, no one treated him like a freak –well, not like someone to completely avoid, and he was free to walk around. He massaged his wrist, were he still felt the weight of the chains that had tied him down for weeks.

Levi explained briefly to Eren where to find the canteen, the training ground, Hanji’s quarters and their labs and the officers’ wing. “I’ll show you the rest of the base day by day. It’s useless to fill your brain with things that you’ll forget.” Eren grunted in defiance, but Levi dismissed him with a cold stare “Besides, you’ll stay with me for the time being. Whatever you need to know, just ask me. Or my sister.” They finally arrived to the mess hall, full with cheerful people eating their deserved food.

Levi pointed to Mikasa, that was sitting with other soldiers of the same squad – Braus, Springer, Bodt and Kirschtein.

“Oh, she resembles you,” commented Eren “Only in the aspect, I hope.”

Levi glared at him again but couldn’t reply, since his sister noticed them and called out “Brother! How are you?” her black orbs landed on the Titan Shifter at his side “Is that him?”

Levi easily ignored all the looks he received: inside an isolated military base, rumors spread like fire. Erwin would have to announce officially the addition of Eren into their ranks in the next days.

Levi nodded and Eren cleared his throat, waving at the soldiers in front of him with a half smile “Hey, guys. Uhm, I’m Eren Jaeger.”

“Hey, buddy, welcome!” said a guy with a buzz cut.

“Hi!” replied a brunette girl, stuffing her mouth with food.

“Welcome to Legion, Eren. I’m Marco and these are Connie, Sasha and Jean. We’re part of the 104th squad.” A tall freckled guy said “But we’re missing Historia and Armin, those two are part of Legion Intelligence and work directly under the Commander, so you won’t find them on training field with the rest of us. Our schedule is slightly different. And our Titan forces are currently reporting to Hanji.”

Eren nodded and smiled at Marco. He liked the friendly guy.

“Ehy, new Titan Shifter,” said the two-toned haired guy sitting next to Marco “Are you a freak like Ymir and the others?”

Eren bristled and his temper flared “So, what if I am? You’re not better than me with that idiot haircut and that long face of yours. At least, I have the fucked up DNA as excuse for being a freak, but what’s yours, Johnny?”

“It’s _Jean_ , idiot. Are you illiterate, too, other than a monster?”

Eren growled and Levi froze with the force of the shock that jolted through their bond, but recovered fast enough to place a hand on his Titan’s shoulder and say “Kirschtein shut your trap or you will be cleaning the canteen floors for the next two weeks.” Levi trailed his blue-gray eyes on the table before speaking again “Springer, show Eren how to get his food.” Connie nodded and accompanied Eren along the throng of people waiting to be served.

“He seems well, for now. He even resisted the natural urge to strangle Jean,” said Mikasa. The others at the table had resumed their meal. “He still hasn’t met the other Shifters, right?” Levi nodded “Well, I suppose he’ll join them tomorrow for their check up with Hanji. So that they could speak about the Omega thing.” Mikasa’s eyes thinned dangerously “Because I suppose the almighty Captain Ackerman didn’t explain shit to that poor boy.”

“I don’t know every single detail about Titan Shifters, Mikasa!” hissed Levi, crossing his arms on his chest.

Mikasa stared at him and slowly her eyebrows raised “You’re saying that you don’t know?” she put a hand over her mouth, hiding the grin that was splitting her face in two “Oh my, brother! You don’t know what it means to have bonded a Titan Shifter… an _Omega_ one, over all!” her shoulders were trembling. “I think I’ll need to give you The Talk!”

“I can’t believe he said something funny.” Eren’s voice came from behind Levi, commenting the fit of laughter that hit Mikasa. The Titan was sitting at the table with Connie and the others, a trail full of food before him.

“Har, har, Jaeger.” Levi rolled his eyes “Stop it, Mikasa.” Hissed again to the ravenette. Then he left the kids to go and have some dinner with his squad. He was submerged by questions, and he was forced to keep Auruo sat, for the Titan wanted to have a glance at “the lucky bastard that found himself bonded to Humanity’s Strongest”. That gained Auruo a good kick on his shin by Petra.

“For the last fucking time, you’ll meet him tomorrow. In the morning we’re going to train together, and in the afternoon we’ll see Hanji and Erwin. For now, I only want to go to bed and forget everything.” Sighed the raven, sipping his tea.

Later, when Levi led the Titan boy to his quarters, he kicked him into the shower almost immediately “One of the few good things of this damned place, is having my own bathroom.” He sighed, nodding towards the only other door inside his room. His quarters were large, but not excessively so: he had a small desk with a chair under a big window, papers neatly stacked on it. His bed occupied the wall in front of the wardrobe, a simple nightstand beside it. The free space on the floor was now taken by a mattress, neatly made with a blue comforter and a pile of clean clothes on it.

“Is this for me?” asked Eren tentatively. He didn’t seem happy.

“Until we find a better accommodation, yes. Mostly for the bond. I really don’t like the idea of not being able to sleep because of that itchy thing.” With a side glance Levi saw Eren nodding, his lips a thin line. “And these are some clothes that my sister brought. Look if you find anything fitting. Tomorrow we’ll find something more suitable.” He yawned “Now go and wash, kid. We both need a good night of sleep.”

Eren was overwhelmed, Levi could tell. Being tore from your life and put into a military base at the service of one of the most important – and secret, international army, would upset anyone.

Eren nodded, grabbed some clothes and went to shower. Levi sighed and started to undress, walking around the mattress on the floor and studying briefly the papers over his desk. A while after, Eren came back, a towel over his head and Mikasa’s clothes _clinging sinfully tight on his lithe form_ – damn, Levi gulped.

Against his will, Levi noticed every drop of water sliding over sun kissed skin, a tight grey tank top and a fucking pair of black shorts that were really too short, accentuating those long legs and stop that, _now!_

“I know it’s weird, so stop looking like you’re about to jump out the window. You know, when you’re kidnapped and your DNA’s all fucked up, fancy dresses are the last of your thoughts.” Said the boy, sitting on his mattress and looking at Levi with those eyes…well. The raven was ready to jump, yes, but not the window. Definitely not the window.

Levi grabbed his pajama pants, a change of underwear and went straight for the shower “Chill, brat. I know, so it’s ok until you’re behind this doors. I’ll find a uniform for you, tomorrow.” First fucking thing in the morning.

“Mh. Night, old man.” And Eren let himself fall back on his pillow, the hint of his abdomen v, visible between the hem of his top and the low, too low, elastic of his shorts, his hip bones jutting out deliciously “Turn the lights off.”

“Like I would sleep with the lights on. Shut up and sleep, what are you, two years old?” Levi made an effort to close the bathroom door behind him. He took a deep breath and prayed to every known god to give him the strength to face the Titan brat. Because as things were now, he would end up either strangling him in his sleep, or shoving the boy up a wall and trail his tongue over that caramel skin, just to taste if it was as sweet as it seemed.

Both solutions were bad, he supposed, so he hoped that the night would bring counsel.

And his sanity back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you confused about Eren, about what happened to our lovely baby and what the fuck the Dynamic thing starts to matter?  
> GOOD.  
> Because we'll have the next chapter to explain all this crap!!


	3. Anyway you want it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren’s breath caught in his lungs and the boy blushed the fifty shades of red. He understood. He finally comprehended what his fellow Shifters where explaining to him. And in a blink of an eye, Eren remembered how it felt when he healed Levi’s neck after having the chip implanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, guys!!  
> Sorry for the late update, but I rewrote this chapter three times! (TT_TT)  
> It seems tradition that I name my chapters after popular songs, so... I'm sticking to it again, sorry XD  
> I really want to thank everyone of you for all the good feedbacks this fic is receiving, it means a lot!!  
> But go on and read babies, and if you want, let me know what you think of this chapter, too <3

Eren slid a finger under the metal of the heavy chain that cuffed his wrist. His skin was ragged and red. He asked himself how long till he developed a nice infection from those injuries. Then shrugged, who cared if he died there? Who would ever cry for his disappearance? No one, that was the truth. He didn’t even know if someone noticed he went missing…and he had lost cognition of time since they took him, but was sure that a lot of time was already passed: he smelt awfully and his clothes were starting to rend. Probably he had been fired from his job at the gym and was only a matter of time, before they suspended his career at the university.

He sighed.

At the beginning, he counted the hours by keeping track of how many times they fed him. But soon he lost count, because his cell didn’t even have a fucking window. Only moldy, humid walls and his chains that blocked him on a wooden bench. Ah, and the small door with bars. The only time he left the basement, was when they took him to the white room, a place that resembled a hospital, with all the instruments and strange machines that they attached to his body.

His kidnappers were either dressed in black with black balaclava, or in white coats and operation gloves and masks. He suspected that they kept him drugged, because he was sluggish and didn’t have any strength.

He saw the white room a couple of times, because they took samples of his blood and checked other things, before they turned him into a monster. After that, he saw no more.

All his world was reduced once again: in the cell Eren was surrounded by dark and humid, stagnant air. Now there was pain and red under his eyelids, his throat sore from all the screaming. He tried to kick and move his hands, but he was constrained. So they drugged him again, dulling the pain and putting him into a forced sleep.

But he still felt his body turn against him, devouring his sanity, changing the order of his insides, incinerating his own heart. And the worst thing of it, was that he couldn’t even lift a finger, could only assist powerless to his own annihilation.

He existed for an indefinite amount of time in that limbus of grating nerves and poised sanity, until a fresh waft of air blew his way, his heart finally started beating with a steady rhythm and his ribcage swelled to let him take a breath of life. A presence like soothing balm.

When he regained power over his body, and remembered how to open his eyes, Eren was met with blue-gray orbs fixing him with curiosity. His first new memory was the one of a sullen looking man, telling that he was safe, that all was fine. And that he should sleep.

Eren often thought about his awakening, and if he could, he’d have laughed. He didn’t remember anyone ever saying him that he was safe –aside his mom. But well, she died when he was nine. But in that instant, for the first time in such a long time, he felt like he could trust the unknown man with the most caring eyes he ever felt directed at him. And after he turned into a monster, too.

The only difference was that that morning, Levi was pinning him onto his mattress by his wrists, looming over the Titan and straddling his legs.

“…Again?” croaked Eren, his voice thick with sleep, panting and noticing how profusely he was sweating.

“Again.” Levi nodded, with his usual bored expression. In the last week, Eren had started to understand that to know him, he had to look at his eyes, that were surprisingly open for such a reserved man.

A reserved man that had the worst habit of sleeping in only pajama pants, strutting around in his stupid room half naked, with the stupidest fucking perfect _six-maybe-eight_ pack Eren had ever had the privilege to lay his eyes on. And did he really have to smell this good, too? Clean and musky and soothing. Eren cursed his life, because in no way he would let his lowest instincts drive him any closer to the odd man. Even if they were screaming at the Titan Shifter to arch his back and lean into the strong grip of the other’s body, seek his warmth and trace every dip between those taut muscles with his fingers. Or better, with his tongue. The soft electric quakes that came from his neck telling him to surrender, _to submit_.

Eren huffed and turned his head, blushing furiously “Okay, now you can let go.” He tried to force free his arms, in vain. He learnt very early that Levi’s small figure hid an impressive amount of strength. Eren wasn’t in top form, yet, but he doubted that even at his best he could overpower the Captain. “Levi, I said let me go. Come. On!” he pulled again, but the raven was still studying him, his stormy eyes taking him the boy’s features, making Eren selfconscious and he was too close, _too close!_

“…Are you going to kick and howl like a madman again, or…” he arched an eyebrow, mocking Eren.

The Titan Shifter snorted and pulled again, freeing himself. Only because Levi decided to let him go. The raven stood, resuming his morning routine. Eren’s nightmare interrupted him in the middle of dressing. “Oh, shut up! You know that once I’m up, I’m fine!” Eren massaged his wrist at the memory of the chains and thanked god for the gray v neck the Captain had already on, because the first time he saw the chiseled miracle that were the back dimples that the raven sported, he had to control that he was not drooling.

Hanji had assured him that this was due to the vital waves enhancer or whatever they bonded them with, but Ymir had laughed for a good ten minutes, saying that the next time they saw each other, she would explain everything to him. Eren grimaced: he liked Ymir, and all the other Titan Shifters, but he really had enough of all the things they were trying to explain to him… it was all so complicated!

“…Did I hurt you?” asked Levi out of the blue. He had his back to the boy, strapping a complicated gear over his sculpted chest.

“No, you didn’t. It’s… nothing, it’s the dream. I’m fine, damn, I’m not so fragile that you can’t grab me with a little bit of force!” the tanned Titan rolled his eyes and finally stood, moving towards the part of the dresser where he put his few belongings.

Levi smirked “Yesterday you didn’t seem so strong to me, brat.” He didn’t push the nightmare matter, and for that Eren was grateful.

“Fuck you!” he countered “You’ve been a soldier for the last fifty years, it’s normal that I can’t keep up with you!”

“Ah! So you can’t keep up with an old man?” scoffed Levi, sheathing a long knife into his case, fixed horizontally on the belt against his back. “You’re a slob, don’t find excuses. Today I’ll make you sweat blood and finally we may be able to see if under all your mane, there is some muscle. Because I’m starting to give up about finding a brain.”

“Har, har. I hope you choke on your denture at breakfast.” Eren flipped him the bird.

At the beginning Eren was surprised that Levi didn’t stress him for his foul temper and running mouth, but that was because Levi had a potty mouth himself and he allowed Eren to call him by his name and jab little insults, only behind their quarters doors.

After having been at Legion’s base for a week, he started to think that he was in some privileged position. He saw how the younger soldiers and a lot of higher officers kissed the ground on which Levi walked.

Eren kept swearing under his breath for a while, changing quickly into his training uniform: a plain black pair of pants, combat boots that arrived at his ankle and a dark green shirt, with the small logo of Legion over the heart and on the back –a pair of overlapping blue and white wings.

He didn’t have many problems adjusting to his new life: he met Levi’s squad and they were all good guys –well, Auruo was still an ass. The Titan Shifters were cool and so were the guys of the 104th, the squad that sometimes he trained with.

“Do you think we can move before noon, brat? Do you want to call for room service? We’re not on fucking holiday, so move your pretty princess ass and let’s go. I swear that if I don’t find any coffee, I’ll kick you to Brazil to make me a cup!”

Eren laughed at the threat “Pfft! I’d like to see that, old man!” he found extremely funny the creative stories that Levi passed for insults. For good measure, the raven kicked him in the butt to make him exit their room.

“Just go and keep your mouth shut, I already feel a migraine coming.” He grumbled, closing the door “And if I find Hanji in the canteen, you’ll be my scapegoat, know it.”

“Eh, I don’t know if they want to speak to me. It seems that you’re their favorite source of fun!” the Titan Shifter shrugged.

“If plan A doesn’t work, I’ll physically throw you at them and fly.”

Eren rolled his eyes “That’s some plan B you have, Captain.”

Levi nodded “Always have a plan B.”

From then on, their morning was routine. They had their breakfast and Eren once again was trying to resist the urge to throttle some Jean Kirschtein, all thanks to Mikasa and Armin. He quickly bonded with the other soldiers his age that were on the base. It helped the fact that they weren’t very numerous to begin with.

Armin, who worked directly under Commander Smith’s orders, explained to him that sometimes, if needed, Legion would ask the help of other mercenaries, but since they didn’t belong to any nation and thus didn’t fly any flag, they were mostly on their own.

“That’s some bruise you got there, Eren.” Noticed Mikasa at some point, her thin eyebrows furrowed.

“Uh? O-oh, this? Well…” he shrugged.

“Weren’t you supposed to heal super fast? What’s the deal with you? Are you broken?” joked Jean.

Eren’s jaw clenched. He totally refused to let those words get to him. And yet he felt the old, familiar hotness of anger crawl inside his stomach.

“That bruise isn’t supposed to heal, Fancypants.” Cut off Annie, without shifting her gaze from her plate “His mate did it. Titan Shifters can’t heal their mate’s signs. Don’t ask why, that’s the way it is. Ask Bert,” she added as an afterthought, a sly grin tugging her lips.

Said Titan Shifter, despite his considerable height an built, paled “W-what?! Why me?”

“Because you’re an Omega, just like Eren,” said Ymir, with a smirk.

Eren looked at Jean and for once in their life –maybe the only one time, they agreed on the same thing. “And what the hell it means?!” they said in chorus.

Reiner burst into a laugh, slamming his hand over the table and making everything on it rattle. When he finally composed enough to speak, he had tears in his eyes “O-oh, my! Eren, my son, today we’ll have to speak. A lot,” he winked.

Eren groaned and leant his forehead over the table “Okay, now I’m scared. The last time you said we had to speak, was to show me how you made your right arm regrow in a hour! Like a fucking lizard!” Eren grimaced. Then turned to Jean again “And for your information, My Little Pony, this” he showed the bruises over his arms and the freshest ones, on the wrists “Were actually made by Levi. Because, you know, you’re all military buddies, but I’m a civilian! I don’t have any fucking training on my back that can save my ass from his beating!”

Mikasa’s mouth thinned “I knew it! I told him to go easy on you, that _idiot_!”

“Yeah, that’s considered domestic abuse!” Connie said. They all snickered at that.

“Oh, wait until this afternoon,” said Ymir “We Shifters’ll have a good talk about Alphas, Omegas, flowers and bees.” Reiner was bent in half laughing, Bert was the same color of a tomato and even Annie’s smirk was… smirkier than usual.

Eren stood and threw his arms up in frustration “I don’t know. I don’t know and I like it to be that way. Keep me in the dark, ignorance is bliss!” and that said, he marched down the hall and towards the training camp.

“You’re not gonna get away, newbie!” shouted Ymir in a sing song voice.

Eren flipped her the bird without even turning back.

In the mornings, Eren trained with Levi and his squad: since he was bonded to the Captain, they all agreed that the faster Eren learnt how they worked, the better. One day he’ll have to go on mission with them and by then, he had to know how the Spec Op Squad moved.

So Levi took the boy under his wing and beat the living shit out of him every day. On one hand, Eren was quickly discovering the new boundaries of his enhanced body: he’d always been athletic and flexible, quick to learn and where he couldn’t arrive with natural gifts, he got thanks to his stubbornness, but now… now his reflexes were quicker, his muscles stronger and that damned vital waves enhancer, well. That was the real deal.

The first time Levi suggested to practice together, he almost shit himself, because come on: he had just seen what kind of moves pulled Erd and Gunther and that had him wonder –and fear, what their Captain was able to do.

But when Levi had started, explaining patiently to him every move and every counter attack he could use, Eren found himself reacting to him like he was _reading_ him. Like he already knew what side Levi’s attack would come from, which direction his fists would go. That didn’t mean he was able to block all of them –if any.

But for one moment, Levi’s eyes widened and he started to teach him with renewed effort. Even if at the end of the day Eren was sore like hell and Levi, angry at his insufficient progresses. That frigid asshole… how could he pretend to make a soldier out of Eren in a week, when he had had all his life to reach his actual level? But they both shared the same passion and eagerness to achieve the maximum of their partnership. At least, physically. That is, not physically as in… you know… physical relationship involving kissing or touching that Adonis body and _why was Eren becoming frustrated by his own mind?!_ He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

He was a humble twenty-two years old that had his life turned inside out in a month, he was allowed to be confused right? Eren wasn’t sad to have lost, what? Debts left by his inexistent father, that abandoned him years ago? The rent for his hole of apartment to pay? A shitty life that would led him absolutely nowhere?

The Titan Shifter had never been one of lasting relationships… of any kind. He was too straightforward, too restless, too self-opinionated for that. And so, he couldn’t really be sad to have left everything behind.

First, because he didn’t feel like he belonged anywhere. Second, because even if he resented the man, Levi was _totally, fucking first class eye candy_. What, was this too superficial a reason to tolerate this situation? Come on, Eren was a simple guy who learnt to get what he could _–and he didn’t get laid since too fucking much, yeah, so sue him!_

Eren shook his head again and walked the last meters that separated him from the doors of the main gym, where he knew Levi and his squad were. He opened the heavy door of the gym and found Petra and Auruo already engaged in some kind of strange sequence of movements, Gunther and Erd were sweating like horses and breathless, sign that they had just finished whatever Levi had told them to do.

The man in question was standing aside, studying Auruo and Petra’s movements, and speaking to the other two in that sultry voice that he possessed. The Titan Shifter swore in his mind. He was late.

A little spike from the chip on his neck warned Eren that Levi saw him and was pissed. The boy rolled his eyes and the Captain caught the motion. _Shit_.

“ _So_. Our little princess thought us worthy of his presence.” Levi’s lips were slightly curled upwards, but his eyes were steel grey. Eren knew that he was doomed “I thought I made myself clear the first day, when I told you I don’t tolerate lazyasses around here, Jaeger. Clearly, I have to remind you why.”

And so Eren’s torture began. Levi made him sweat blood indeed, making him run, do push-ups and subjecting him to all his invented deathly training circuits. The raven executed every exercise right next to the boy, to watch him closely and correct him, but also to make the vital waves enhancer chip phase quicker.

They were beginning to work like a good oiled machine, even if Eren was still slower and tired more easily than the Captain.

When he walked to Hanji’s that afternoon, he was sore and tired. He only wanted to curl into his bed and sleep till the next week, but... there was this prickly sensation, this electric pull that always came to life after an intense training session. Like… he needed to release a need that he couldn’t possibly identify. And consequently, didn’t know how to relieve. He noticed that lately, since Levi made him do everything he did, the disturbance only grew. He hoped that ignoring it, it would pass.

Eren’s immediate problem was to resist and sit through the crazy scientist’s classes about Titan Shifters’ abilities and other tactical notions about Legion. He yawned and when he finally reached one of the spare rooms in which Hanji took their lessons, he collapsed on a chair.

“Whoa, there, what happened to you?” asked Ymir, who was happily chatting with the other Shifters and sitting on top of a desk.

“Man, you look worse than this morning!” added Reiner, scrunching his nose and inspecting the new set of bruises that gave Eren’s arms a nice blue complexion. And the one on his jaw, that didn’t look good.

“ Yeah, thanks, it’s good to have friends.” Huffed the tanned boy, resting his cheek against the cold surface of the desk.

“What the hell is the Captain doing to you?” asked Annie, making a bubble with the pink gum she was chewing. “No, don’t speak. Or Mikasa will know and go to chew the midget’s head off.”

“The only way she has to know, it’s you blabbing about it to her, Annie.” Deadpanned Eren. The blond Beta Titan shrugged.

“Yeeaah” drawled Ymir “I’d really like to see the terrible Ackerman brothers brawl over this Jaeger booty!” the freckled girl swatted Eren’s back, making him flinch.

“Okay, okay, children. Be good.” Laughed Reiner, his clear eyes slid over every Titan Shifter “We all know that today we have to discuss an important matter with the newest member of our club. And we better do it before Hanji’s here.”

“Why?” asked Eren, lifting his head from the desk.

“Well… that’s kinda personal,” said Bert, averting his eyes and shrugging, already embarrassed. Eren’s confusion grew, while Annie, Reiner and Ymir exchanged a knowing look.

“Listen…” began the big blonde Alpha Titan “For now, you’re only training with your human and you’re still in a rather safe environment, but… Titans have the task to protect and enhance their human’s vitality. Titans can increase your physical resistance and your healing abilities. But us Shifters…” he grinned evilly, exuding pride.

“Us Shifters are a class of our own!” continued Ymir, with the same prideful glint as Reiner in her dark eyes “We can heal our human’s injuries, not only quicken their healing process. We can increase their strength and speed in fights. Because we’re just badasses.” She joked “But all this cool things have a price: the shit that made us Titan Shifters has a great power, but just as great collateral effects. After a haeavy use of our abilities, say, after a bad fight, this mechanism just… overheat. And it makes us unstable. We begin to feel hot all over and we’re not able to think straight anymore.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty awful if you put it this way, Ymir!” intervened Reiner “Look at the poor bastard’s face!”

Annie smirked: Eren’s eyes were as big as saucers and under his dark skin, his face was slightly pale.

“Don’t shit yourself, Jaeger. Listen to the end. After all, we’re still alive,” said Annie. Eren shot her a look, her words giving him very little comfort. Still, he nodded to his friend to go on with their explanation.

“Where was I? Ah, yeah. So, left to ourselves, after an intense stress, or exertion, we basically go nuts.” Eren remembered the state in which he was before being saved by Legion. The tanned boy gulped. “Hanji like to call it ‘heat cycle’. If the strain is moderate, you can try to ignore it, and maybe it’ll pass, but it’d take hours. The only way to work out a heat cycle, is to relieve whatever you feel. Simple as that. One day in the company of your mate, and _-bam!_ You’re back, better than before!” finished Ymir, with a satisfied grin.

Eren looked at her. Then at Annie. The short blond Titan arched a brow and said “You didn’t understand anything, did you?”

Ymir groaned, Bert giggled and surprisingly took in his hands the situation. “Okay, maybe Eren needs a more… pragmatic explanation. He’s been a Titan Shifter for only a month, after all…”

“Baby, you’re too nice for your own good,” Reiner kissed him on his cheek, then turned to Eren “You’d better listen.”

Eren rolled his eyes at the protectiveness of the big blond Titan.

“Okay, so. Hanji told you about their theory about our origin?” asked Bert.

Eren nodded. Since he awoke in Legion, Hanji had instructed him about Titans: they said that in their opinion Shifters were the evolution of engineered modified Titans. The difference was that a Shifter had a bigger power of merging with the nanomachines than normal humans. In a Shifter was not possible to find any trace of mechanics and even the vital waves enhancer, after a while, completely fused with their body.

So why Hanji was sure that Shifters’ abilities came from nanomachines, exactly like any other Titan? Because of their vital waves, obviously. The scientist told Eren that humans and Titans had different waves patterns, distinguishable from each other. And so were Shifters’ waves, that clearly showed the empowerment due to the nanomachines.

“What you –we, have to deal after we use our abilities, is a really bothersome state of instability. The nanomachines that have merged with our body have to release all the energy that accumulated through the strain. So, you have to find a way to relieve this… stress. Otherwise, they’ll start to literally consume your body from inside out.” Bert looked at the tanned Titan, who nodded.

“Good. Hanji told that you’re an Omega, right?” Eren nodded again “Like me.” The tall Titan blushed like a tomato and stuttered “O-okay, so. This doesn’t mean anything really. That is, Hanji came up with this crazy subdivision based over our vital waves. Alphas like Reiner and Ymir react strongly after such an effort, they basically go berserk and need their mate to calm them. Annie’s a Beta and even if her reactions are much more…moderate, she’s still affected. But she basically becomes restless, angrier and bitchier.”

Annie snorted and flipped Bert the bird. The tall boy went on “Omegas…well, we have it bad, Eren.” Bert gulped, the redness reaching also his ears. “We’re the most instable Dynamic. We enter this heat cycle and we can try to ignore it, if the effort we make it’s light. But after a real fight, we need our mate to…take care of us.”

“Wait, Bert, what are you saying? In what sense your mate has to take care of you?” Eren asked, now really confused.

Ymir huffed “Your mate’s the one that has the most similar vital waves, so he’s the most effective in releasing the need you’ll feel in the heat. You’ll need his body fluids to quench the heat that the nanomachines produce. You’re mate need you to heal and you need him to stabilize the machines. Damn, Jaeger, have I to draw it to you?! Are you this dense?!”

Okay. Okay that was a joke. _Heat cycles_? Exchange of _body fluids_? With _Levi_. Levi fucking Ackerman. Eren was already lucky that the man tolerated them breathing the same air! This… wait, he have to be sure. He have to ask.

“So,” Eren cleared his voice ”This means that… after an intensive training session, for example, I’ll feel this need to…what, lick Levi’s sweat?” he grimaced. But the warm sensation he felt in his belly since he ended his training that morning told him another story.

“Well, that…” shrugged Reined with a grin “Or you could _kiss_ him. I think that’s more classy.”

Eren startled, because as his thoughts went down that path, he felt like having a cat stirring in his gut. The feline purred happily, when finally his owner understood _what the hell_ it wanted. Eren felt it rolling on his back and showing its throat in submission, calling for its Owner to pet him with insistent mewls. And when Eren’s Omega thought of its Owner, it didn’t mean its body owner – _pfft, please, that was Eren_.

Oh, no. The Omega-cat purring in Eren’s belly was calling for its _Owner_. His mate. The raven smartass that surely was scratching at his arms like mad right now, because the Captain could feel the call, too, but was still too obtuse to understand that he had to come here _right this instant_.

Eren’s eyes went even bigger. Annie smirked, and for once didn’t try to hide her amusement “Look, guys. I think the wheels are starting to roll.”

“WHAT!” Eren yelped. He subconsciously put his hands over his belly, the warmth coming from his insides increasing.

“You’ll have to exchange body fluids, Eren.” Repeated Annie, always chewing her pink gum “Everything’s good. Saliva, sweat –if you’re in this kind thing, tears, sperm…”

This time, Eren whined. Ymir rolled her eyes “Yeah, Jaeger, she said sperm. Seed. Come on, be an adult and man up!”

“B-b-but I couldn’t... I cannot! We’re not- how could I?!” Eren asked, looking at every Titan Shifter in the room. Of course, he liked Levi’s body, but he has known the man for a week! How could he possibly ask him to… help with such a thing?! “Isn’t there any other option?”

“Well, you could always ask him to scruff your neck. Right where the chip is implanted, but… again, it only works if the heat you’re in is a light one.” The tall Titan was still red as a tomato.

”Or you can ask others to take care of you.” Said Ymir, furrowing her eyebrows “But I don’t know, I’ve always been bonded to my sweet baby Historia.” She smiled thinking at her mate. The other three Shifters groaned.

“You could, but it wouldn’t be the same,” cut in Annie “If the one taking care of you during your heat is not your partner, your heat will last longer and your body will recover slowly. And when I say slowly, I mean very slowly. The most effective way to end a heat cycle, is to mate your bonded human.”

Reiner nodded again “Don’t worry, man. When the time comes, you’ll know what to do. It’s instinctual.”

Eren huffed and lowered his eyes, gazing at his hands in his lap. His Omega was still moving inside him, stretching lazily and rubbing against his abdomen walls. Creating a sort of itchy feeling that had Eren desiring to have something to reach it, to pet the little kitty head so that it would stay fucking still.

Eren’s breath caught in his lungs and the boy blushed the fifty shades of red. He understood. He finally comprehended what his fellow Shifters where explaining to him. And in a blink of an eye, Eren remembered how it felt when he healed Levi’s neck after having the chip implanted.

A sort of hotness and restlessness and desire to stretch towards the Captain and touch him, keeping him close. Was it _lust_? Eren groaned and hid his face into his hands. He was doomed.

* * *

 

In the officers’ wing of the base, seated in front of Erwin’s mahogany desk, Levi sneezed. Again.

The blond Commander raised his head form the documents they were inspecting and arched his impressive eyebrows “Are you feeling well, Captain?”

“Uh? Yeah. Why?” answered Levi, without interrupting his reading.

“Since you came here, you’ve been sneezing and scratching and pacing around, sitting, then standing to sit again… you’re driving me crazy, with your fidgeting!”

Levi raised his head and cocked one of his thin eyebrows “What the heck are you saying?” his left hand went straight to his nape and scratched. Erwin stood and groaned, exasperated.

“Stop. Stop with this documents and go see Hanji! Maybe they will help you to stop looking like a monkey.”

“Not a monkey, asshole. But even if I don’t have fleas, this work could be done by a monkey, I agree.” Levi said. He had been able to irritate Erwin without even opening his mouth. He considered that a new personal record. Well done, Ackerman. So the raven piled neatly all the papers he was bent on and stood up.

“Your age is starting to take a toll on your personality. You’ve gone soft, Eyebrows. Once you’d have kept me here even with an attack of diarrhea.”

“Go see Hanji, Levi. _Now,_ ” repeated the Commander. Levi smirked and fled. Of course he was going to say fuck and ditch Hanji. _Tch_ , like he would go and look for that pile of craziness out of his own free will. So the raven decided to go see how the training of the new recruits was going. Much better.

He loved scaring the shit out of the newbies. But he cared that they were motivated and taught the right things. After all, the soldiers here were under his responsibility, too. He took the short cut through the classes floor, at that time of day deserted, since all the soldiers had practice. But the floor was not deserted, since out of one room, Levi saw the one person he wanted to avoid.

Levi could hear the voices of some people coming from the open door of said room, and Hanji was shamelessly eavesdropping, smashed against the wall of the corridor. The scientist noticed Levi and gestured to join them.

“What the hell are you doi-hmprf!” Levi’s whisper was cut off by Hanji’s hand over his mouth.

Levi swore he saw red and was about to break their arm, before a familiar voice spoke from inside the room. _Eren_.

“Why?” Levi heard his Titan ask, his voice muffled by the distance but still clear.

“Well… that’s kinda personal.” Said another one. The Captain recognized the owner of the voice as Bertholt, another one of the Titan Shifters. Levi scowled at Hanji, asking why were they eavesdropping when it’d be so much easier to walk right in. He was turning to march into the room, when Hanji pulled his arm.

“Shush and stay here! You absolutely have to hear this!” they hissed his way, barely containing the excitement.

The Captain and the scientist listened to the Shifters’ conversation about heat cycles, nanomachines, Omega, Alpha, body fluids and probably even how to find the Smurfs’ village and the gold at rainbows’ end, because Levi’s brain short-fucking-circuited at some point.

When all was said, the raven looked at Hanji. They were vibrating with agitation at all the news.

“Levi? You okay?” they asked when the raven didn’t move. He was confused and worried and finally gone nuts, because listening to all that shit, made the pricking worse. His neck was hot and something funny was happening into his insides, like his body wanted to answer to some unknown call and was vibrating to just _do_ something. Levi realized what was he wanted to do and suppressed it in the depth of his mind. Now it was not the time to dwell on such things.

“I’m done for, Four-eyes,” was all he could answer.


	4. Chokehold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was distracted from his reverie by Eren's arms latching around his neck. “I said. Come. Back. Here!” grunted the boy, pulling Levi down against him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still alive!! I'm SO sorry for this super late update ç_ç I have an important exam on the last week of july and I don't always have the right mindset to write... stupid exam.  
> But go on, my sweet babies, and have a taste of this new chapter: we finally have some action!!! *_*  
> I'll never thank you enough for all the kudos and comments you leave me, I'm so happy to read what you think! (don't leave me starving for comments!!)

The days following the big revelation about his Shifter’s deal, Levi reached a new level of mastering his facial expressions.

That night, when he went back to his quarters with Eren, he could feel under his feet the eggs on which the both of them were walking. Obviously he acted like normal, firstly because he didn’t want to admit to his Titan that he had eavesdropped all that fucking embarrassing conversation. And second, because he _really_ didn’t want to put the kid in a more awkward situation than the one he was already in.

If all this wasn't enough, Eren’s nightmares didn’t stop and Levi often found himself in the middle of the night restraining the brat: sometimes Eren didn’t even wake up, but when he did, he was frustrated and restless and his beautiful eyes burned with the fear of distant memories.

All Levi could do in those moments, was to distract the Titan Shifter from the dark thoughts. And so he kept him occupied. They would dress in their training outfit and clean the base. Yes, because Levi knew that the mechanical motions and the rather easy physical effort it required, could lull any troubled mind into a sort of trance.

Exactly what they needed. And besides, Legion soldiers were a bunch of uncultured pigs and if left to their own judgment, the base would have soon turned into a pigsty. And so they cleaned, consuming gallons of bleach, inhaling the particular smell that sang cleanliness from afar –“Augh, damn you, you sanitizer mini-maniac! I’ll get holes in my lungs and my brain’s going to liquefy with all this shit!” – “Chill, brat. You can regrow your lungs if needed. And if your brain does liquefy, it’s the final proof that you indeed have one.”

The Captain made the Titan wear a bandanna to cover his nose and mouth, and he decided that since there was no one around, save for the sparse soldier patrolling the base, he wore one too. And another over his head. In such a way Levi and Eren spent their nights, bent over some _obstinate dirt that wouldn’t fuck off, for the love of-!_

“Ehy, Captain Sparkle.” called Eren at one point. He received a grunt and a _fuck you_ in response. Eren passed an arm over his brow “Are you trying to make a hole into the floor? Stop scrubbing the same point, it's obviously clean.”

“You’re obviously blind, besides being a slob and a lazy bum. More cleaning, less whining, mutt.” The raven gestured for Eren to kneel beside him and with one hand, he grabbed the bottle of soap and poured some more on the floor.

The Titan Shifter huffed, exasperated “Why do I have to keep up with you?” he said and went back to work. Eren had already learned that his Captain didn't tolerate half-hassed works. You go big, or you go home. And Eren, as competitive as he was, complied.

Levi raised his head, surprised “Oh! That vital waves gimmick’s a wonder! Now you could even read my thoughts, brat? Because I was thinking exactly that. This is very convenient, I’ll save a lot of breath without needing to explain every-fucking-single-damned-thing.”

“Pfft, please, we all know that you get off by ordering others around.”

Levi sniffed and stood, arching his back until a satisfying pop could be heard.

“Where are you going? Leaving me to deal with your OCD?!” Eren's eyes flashed toward that sinuous figure and could appreciate the flexibility of the man. _Damn_ : agile like a cat, strong and with a pair of eyes that could both kill and resuscitate the dead –eh, the boy knew by now that if Levi wanted him in a certain position, he could very well force him to maintain it for as long as he pleased with only a look.

 _Wait, what?_ What the hell, brain?! Okay, it was three in the morning, but why was Eren blushing like a high school girl while ogling his odd companion?

 _Because you really want to know how good your legs look around his neck_ , purred the Omega kitty cat that was lazily napping in his gut. Eren yelped and the hand holding him skidded over the wet floor, crashing on the tiles with his forehead first.

Levi turned at the sound, his right hand already at his back, grabbing at his knife. Luckily, during their improvised night cleaning duties, the Captain didn’t gear up as he used to.

“Tch.” Levi clicked his tongue “No knife. You're so lucky, brat.” the raven eyed the tanned boy who was scrubbing his forehead, that was lightly fuming, his healing abilities already kicking in. “Come on. We're done here.” he said, but looking closely to Eren, he saw the Shifter's shoulders stiffening, his eyes going slightly larger. “We're not going back to sleep, yet.” He added.

Eren visibly relaxed “Oh. What did you had in mind, then?” he asked, standing and approaching Levi.

“We're going to make the best of this time. Put that rubbish away, then come to the gym. We're going to sweat your nightmares away.” He said and marched out the room.

Eren gulped. Levi was giving up his sleep hours to keep him company. At the beginning, the Shifter thought that the raven bastard's target was to work him like a slave just to satisfy his cleanliness cravings. But after a few times, the stupid, intrusive cat that roamed Eren's insides mewled offended against his theory.

Yes, Eren was a pragmatic guy, and he quickly got used to this new presence inside him that reacted so strongly to outer stimuli. To outer stimuli with jet black hair and piercing blue-gray eyes, crowned with bad attitude. Eren clicked his tongue and picked up all the things they used to clean around the base. He walked towards the supply closet and proceeded to put everything back in place.

His neck was prickling with anticipation, urging him to join his mate. And after tonight, even Eren's brain had to admit that the Captain wasn't only exploiting him, but somehow cared about him. And about those damned nightmares. What had Hanji said? _'The Captain may be a demanding asshole, but he’s caring and a good person at heart.'_

Eren walked through the gym doors with a frown, fearing that those words could be true. The Omega cat mewled aloud, asking why was Eren frightened of its Owner: they just established that he cared for them! Well, stupid Omega, Eren didn't do well with trust, or people and things in general... he was still trying to fit into this new life that required so much from a commoner like him!

Other than the mad training that Levi was pushing him into, that exhausted him both physically and mentally, the knowledge of his state as Shifter loomed over his neck. Literally. And the state as Omega, in his fellow Shifters’ opinion, required a very near proximity intimacy with said raven slaver.

“Please tell me you're not holding back a fart.” was Levi's lovely welcome.

Eren stopped in his stride as his eyebrows skyrocketed upwards “...Did you inhale too much bleach?” He wasn't even surprised, closed the distance between them and looked at what the older man was holding.

“No, idiot. And there's never enough bleach, know it.” The Captain shot him a look, then shrugged “I was only wandering what caused that expression of yours.” After a moment of deadpanned stares between the two, Levi offered one of the ten inches fake knives he was holding. “Tonight we're going to use these. Think you can handle it?”

Eren took it. “Think you can handle me?” He joked.

Levi smirked and a mischievous glint sparkled in his bedroom eyes. “I think I'm already handling you well. But I'm a fast learner, I can do better.” And turned to position himself over the mat that occupied the floor, barefooted, as his boots were neatly disposed to the side.

Eren suppressed a purr and cursed the Omega kitty that rolled over its back in submission. Damn, if that tone wasn't suggestive... Eren shook his head to clear his mind and hurried to remove his own boots and join Levi on the mat.

The Titan Shifter took position in front of his Captain and studied the weapon: taking it in his right hand, he weighed the fake knife and passed a finger over its dulled blade. It wouldn't cut, but it could still bruise the tender skin badly. This made Eren grimace. “I thought that knives were only used in thugs brawls... isn't Legion classier?”

Levi scoffed “You're wrong, kid. Erwin’s eyebrows are classy –or this is what he would say. That blonde oaf is the only one that needs to be classy to dupe rich financiers to support our cause. In Legion we don't bother with classy things. We make sure that things are done. Quick and clean, this is the important.” Levi was twirling the fake blade through his slender fingers, making it into a hypnotic movement, a game made for children. As he spoke, his eyes were following the knife, his posture sure and relaxed “Knives are good when you need to strike a near target, and it can give you a neat and fast work if you're good enough. Knives will fight for you as long as your arm’s attached to your body.”

Eren snorted “But only if you’re good enough.”

Levi nodded “If you're me, you can convince your target to stab himself.” He stopped the twirling blade and smirked at Eren.

Eren rolled his eyes “Show off.” Levi shifted, lightly flexing his knees and gripping his knife contrariwise, with the blade in the opposite direction of Eren.

The Shifter furrowed his brow and considered that odd grip: his target was in front of him and that was the direction in which he'd keep his blade, thank you very much. But for the rest, he tried to mimic Levi's stance: the free hand in front of him to protect, the armed one behind him, ready to strike when his opponent was at the right distance.

“Don't overthink things, brat. This round is just to see what kind of style you have. Just come at me and we'll work from that.” said Levi.

Eren nodded and moved a few tentative steps over the mat. The Captain followed him, circling each other. Eren didn't have any idea, and Levi with a knife was unnerving him -until now, they had only tried hand-to-hand combat. So he moved his arms, faking an attack but not truly moving.

Levi huffed and moved quickly, three steps and he was in front of Eren. With his left hand the raven blocked Eren's knife hand and with his own blade aimed for the boy's side. Instinctively, Eren lifted his leg and with a rotation of the limb, was able to block Levi’s hit. Unfortunately, in doing so, Eren lost his stability and Levi took advantage of the fact: he changed his grip over the knife, rotated his torso and with a quick move stabbed the boy in the abdomen.

“Ouch!” Eren massaged his belly, where the dulled weapon hit hard. But he knew from experience that when they trained, Levi always refrained his true strength.

The raven released him and backed up, rolling his shoulders and observing his Titan “That wasn't bad. But it was instinctive, and see where you are. Your intuition was good, but you have to do the right movement so that you always keep the advantage over your opponent. Let's try again, but this time you attack first.”

And so on they went, with each new motion that Levi taught Eren, the Shifter felt his neck prickling pleasantly, sure that he was exactly where he had to be. The chip implanted in their neck resonated strongly with each blow that was exchanged, each look of mute understanding that prevented such blows to lend.

Soon the night was consumed by hungry hours. Ragged breaths and light steps were the only rumors in the gym. Eren's thoughts were like scattered leaves and he was only a bundle of nerves, acting and reacting. He was starting to read Levi's actions and anticipate them, until he took advantage of his height to hide a subtle movement and land a fist to Levi's solar plexus. The raven took a step back but didn't lose his ground, the only action betraying his surprise was the arm that he brought over his sternum in defense. Eren pressed on and flexed to sprint against the older man, dodging the fake blade slash that was directed to his shoulder and flashed his fake knife under the Captain's armpit. Hard.

Levi's breath hitched and he grunted for the impact. Then Levi acted on reflex, as Eren's nose was hit by an elbow and the younger male was swept off his feet from a low kick. The tanned boy had just touched the mat and Levi was already straddling him, blocking his armed hand with his free one, his own knife at the brat's throat. They both were sweating and breathing hard, looking at each other.

Eren's teal eyes were lit with a wild fire, oblivious to everything that wasn't the man in front of him, focused only on the objective of disarming him, overtaking him, obliging the raven to recognize his worth.

Levi's steel grey orbs were a tumult of liquid emotions, a storm ready to pour over the boy underneath him. And not to extinguish the drive that Levi found in those amazing eyes, but to rekindle and strengthen it.

Like throwing fucking gasoline over a wild fire.

“You hurt me, brat.” croaked Levi, his voice heavy after the effort of staying in place and not leaning over to cover those delicious lips with his own, slightly parted, and to steal away every last-

“Because you didn't? You did me ‘well’, asshole!” growled Eren.

 _Oh, yes, he could really_ do _Eren well._

Levi blinked slowly, seeming able to finally see Eren. He straightened, freeing the boy's throat but still seated on his lap. Absentmindedly he touched the space under his armpit where Eren hit him “That was a good blow.”

Eren grunted and thanked the pain coming from his nose for keeping him distracted from the sweet sensation of Levi's weight in his lap. The beast in his gut mewled needy, and was ignored once again. So the kitty Omega crawled along Eren's stomach and throat, to claw at his nape and scratching hard.

The Shifter didn't have the time to ponder over that, because in sitting, his aching nose started to bleed profusely.

“Ew, that's gross!” exclaimed Levi, immediately backing up. He crouched next to Eren over the mat.

Eren shoved him with his clean hand -he had just insulted Levi, he didn't want to die so soon. “It's your fault for not being able to restrain yourself!”

Levi tried again to keep his head outta his gut and leaned to touch Eren's jaw, humoring the strange itch that pulled him to act. He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the yellowish bruise on the boy's jaw -a gift from their last session “Incline your head. Ok that's good. Just press here, it'll stop itself.”

“...I know. I've been in plenty stupid street fights to know at least this much.”

“Did you?”

Eren shrugged. “Never said I was a saint.”

“Never thought you were one. But I prefer it this way.” replied Levi without a pause. The Shifter looked at him over his fingers pinching the bleeding nose, waiting for the raven to elaborate. The Captain sighed, his hand still over the boy's jaw, pleasantly cold “I think you have an idea of what kind of work we do here at Legion... I presume you haven't ever fought someone the same way I'm training you, but you know how to keep up with me. So I prefer to have you, a dumb lazyass that isn't afraid of the idea of stabbing someone in the gut to survive, than some smart bimbo who couldn't even tie their own boots.” He said and then eyed Eren, whose breath was ragged and oddly shallow. “Because you already have seen it all, am I right?”

The more Levi saw the tanned boy move around in their training sessions, the more he was convinced that Eren hadn't had a quiet life. He knew how to throw a good punch and how to receive one without going down. Well, he never went down. Eren was one stubborn fucker. And Levi had Mikasa as his sister, he knew stubbornness. And tonight the young Titan had demonstrated, once again, that the possibility of fighting for his life wasn’t foreign to him.

The Captain knew that between this and reality, a huge difference existed, but with a good training, the act would result so mechanical and natural, that Eren wouldn't doubt himself if needed. Sure, his Titan would have to face the consequences of his deeds, but everyone in this line of work had to, sooner or later. And come that time, Levi would be there with him.

As Levi expected, Eren nodded but kept his head tilted down, the bleeding already stopped. His t-shirt was stained in red, though. He shrugged “Well, since mom’s death I’ve been on my own. At the beginning Grisha -my father,” he felt the need to explain, not without a grimace “tried to provide for the two of us. But he’s always been an egoist asshole, too occupied with whatever was his damned work to really give a fuck. Until one day, he left for good, too.” Eren laughed, a forced and strangled sound “Pathetic, isn’t it?”

Levi rolled his eyes “Brat, you’d be surprised in knowing that pretty much everyone here has a story like yours. It’s not really my place to say, but trust me when I say that in Legion you’ll find some people that went so down, they thought the surface didn’t exist anymore.” The Captain’s voice was now a whisper, his eyes a pool of melted quicksilver. “But one way or another, they found themselves again. Some didn’t know what to do to live on, what to believe in. But that’s what Erwin’s here for. I believe in him. And so I fight with him.”

At one point, Eren had raised his head, and now was looking at Levi with such huge eyes, the raven could see his reflection in them. “A trouble shared is a trouble halved, I suppose.” Chuckled the young male. But then Eren bent again over himself, gripping with his right hand the blood stained shirt over his heart, emitting a strained sound.

“Brat? What's wrong?” Levi gripped Eren’s shoulder harder, shaking him. He thought that they were fine, by now. Eren didn't reply, instead he tried to steady his breathing, but only a pained whine came out from his lips.

“Eren.” called Levi “Speak to me. If you don't, I can't help you.” The raven recalled in his memory everything they did, in the eventuality that some movement had caused more damage than he thought, but no. That was not the case. The last blow had been a little bit rough, but the Captain knew that Eren could take that and much more. Maybe it would be better to call Hanji...

Levi sucked his teeth in annoyance. He didn't like the idea to wake up that pile of four eyed mess and try to explain what he did to his Titan... surely they would be assuming the most perverted things and Levi wouldn't hear the end of it. He was distracted from this thoughts by Eren whining again. He also had started to sweat and tremble, his face flushed.

After another whine and a deeper shade of red tinting his ears, Eren finally raised his head. His hair was a mess of chocolate, eyes watery and he was worrying his teeth over his lower lip. Levi feared the boy was going to cry, but his brain conked out the moment Eren opened his mouth and called “Levi...” with the most luscious honeyed voice the raven had ever heard. It was needy and feeble and raw, it dripped want and longing from every fucking side you heard it. The reaction it caused was a rainfall born from the raven’s neck, devouring like fire his nerves and reason, ending its wild run to Levi's dick.

Levi licked his lips, his eyes fixed on the boy in front of him.

When the Titan realized what kind of inflexion his voice had taken, he blushed furiously, as he slapped his hands over those traitor lips. In that moment, Levi was taken back to a certain afternoon, when he accidentally eavesdropped a certain discussion between a certain group of Titan Shifters, and a strange feeling crept along his spine.

With the realization that he could do something to ease Eren's...state, he also remembered what the deal was. He looked at the broken boy that was desperately and stubbornly fighting his instincts and something roared inside him in victory. The same thing that urged him to touch Eren's jaw before with care, was now howling to have a taste of his own Titan.

Levi would never admit that in that moment, he was frozen. Not in fear or stupor, but with the effort of resisting the urge to cradle the Titan with jewel eyes in his arms, to kiss away his worries and satisfy every single damn need he should ever feel. Between the fog of lust, his brain –bless Levi’s capacity of thinking even in the shittiest situations, recalled other pieces of that infamous discussion and so he slid the hand that still held Eren face, along his jaw line and over his neck, just under his hair line. He let the messy locks entangle between his fingers and rested his palm over the hot nape that housed the chip, feeling Eren stiffening under the unexpected contact.

Then Levi flexed his fingers and saw that Eren relaxed almost immediately, leaning into the touch. The Omega Shifter moaned and sighed happily. Levi gulped down and drank every damned change in the young boy's expression. The Captain himself felt the benefits of that actions, like a soothing balm poured over an injury and all the strain he put his muscles through that night, almost vanished.

The action didn't quite satisfy the basic craving for his Titan, though – now was not the time to think about _this_ , but it became a dull ache in the back of his mind. Always present, but easily ignored.

 _For now_ , said a tiny Hanji-like voice in the back of his mind.

Eren was still lost in the possessive touch on his neck, eyes closed and breathing finally even. His body melted against his mate’s touch, abandoning his weight on Levi’s chest.

The raven held his breath and brought his free hand to Eren’s shoulder, holding him in place, while his other hand kept scratching the boy’s neck.

“...This wasn't the first time you felt it, was it.” Demanded Levi. Now he was angry at the boy “Why didn't you tell me before?”

Eren blinked owlishly, confused like he had just woke up. “I...uh, what?”

Levi huffed and hissed “I said, why didn't you tell me sooner that you were overheating. You know this could be dangerous for you, idiot!” yet, he never stopped rubbing Eren's nape.

The Titan boy sighed and closed his eyes again. After a few seconds, he mumbled something incomprehensible and shrugged. Levi's frown accentuated: why this stubborn brat wanted to resolve everything by himself? Why didn't he ask for help? After all, Levi was bonded to him for this purpose!

 _He told you before, why! He was left alone. ‘Alone’ was all Eren knew. Wouldn't you have done the same, in his place, Short and Furious?_ His mind spoke again with Hanji's insupportable voice.

The raven _tch-_ ed and spat a “Fuck you!”

Eren opened his big doe eyes “What?!” there was again the amber light inside those teal orbs, but it was smoldered by the pale fingers tangled in his hair. “Fuck you too, Scrooge.” he slurred: right now the Shifter was a tamed beast. Levi snickered at the thought and gave a light tug to the long chocolate locks. It caused Eren’s hands to fist in Levi’s shirt.

“It was not directed at you.” explained the Captain “You know that Mikasa’s my sister, right. Do you think she wouldn’t tell me that you spent the hours after our training in her and Annie’s room? Do you really think that Annie wouldn’t fucking complain to me?!”

Eren stiffened again, but kept his face buried in Levi’s shirt. “…Oh.”

“ ‘Oh’, indeed, you brainless Shifter.” Levi slapped lightly Eren’s head, placing his hand over his nape again “I know you can calm down with Annie being a Beta and what not, but… Don’t ever underestimate this again. The longer we train, the hardest it’ll become. I don’t wanna risk having you in a heat in the middle of an operation. So don’t be a stubborn brat and come to me the next time, is that clear?”

“Uh uh.” nodded Eren, his eyes closed, half sprawled over the mat with his head completely supported by Levi's hand. He sighed in bliss and Levi understood why he didn’t said anything about the tirade he just received.

“You are so _not_ sleeping here, kiddo.” said Levi with a stern voice. “Not without a fucking shower and a change of -EREN!” Levi removed suddenly the hand that was holding Eren's head, making it thumping on the mat.

“Awww” Eren whimpered, there wasn't much of an impact and the mat absorbed the hit, but the tanned boy whimpered at the loss, sending involuntarily a spike through the chip, calling for Levi to alleviate his discomfort again. “You meeeany-”

Levi touched his own neck “What was that? It was you...?”

“Leeeviii...you just blabbed about telling you when I need you and now you complain when I do that! Fuck you!” Eren kept on whining like a drunk. Levi blinked owlishly, understanding that the Shifter was indeed calling for him, urging for that hand to go on scraping his nape and keeping him close...

But that didn't explain shit “Why are you in this...state? You look like an alcoholic shit.”

Eren rolled over the mat, mimicking the Omega in his gut and presenting his throat at his oblivious mate. Who hadn’t the faintest idea that the Shifter wanted to be cuddled, damn! “Nh...it's the chip fault...when you” Eren closed his eyes to find the words and flipped his wrist around vaguely “When you did that... with your hand, you know? Well, the chip released a bunch of pher -fero -pheromones, yes, that helped me with the pain and the injury. But the side effect is the release of other chemical things that Bert said they would make me sort of tipsy.” after the word vomit, Eren smiled satisfied at Levi, looking up to him from the mat “So come back here and go on doing the magic, please.”

The raven couldn't believe his ears. This fucking bonding issue was a huge-ass-fuck-you-Levi growing bigger and bigger with each passing day. Oh, coming tomorrow Levi would go to Hanji to finally massage their lonely neuron with his boot -passing from their stupid lying mouth, and then he would go to Bert and kick his ass too, for telling Eren a lot of bullshit. Or for telling him too little, he had time to decide which one.

He was distracted from his reverie by Eren's arms latching around his neck. “I said. Come. Back. Here!” grunted the boy, pulling Levi down against him.

“What the fu-” Levi didn't have the time to swear, because Eren maneuvered them so that he was pinning Levi to the mat, one of his arms blocked by the boy's weight, his chest flushed to the Captain's. With his right hand Eren held Levi's free wrist while the other was brought to Levi's nape.

“Oi, shitty brat. What are you thinking you're doing?” Levi tested the strength of Eren's hold, but was distracted by the smug smirk that curved his Titan's lips.

“Even if Rainer said you're not as effected, I think you can understand what that did to me.” he whispered. And so, Eren's hand went to Levi's neck, starting to massage the skin over the chip in the same way that the raven had done. Then Eren closed his eyes and concentrated, sending spikes through their bond so that he could share his dizziness with Levi.

As the spike reached Levi, his spine arched against the mattress and he pressed into Eren's chest and the close contact didn't grossed him out, sending instead his eyes rolling backwards from pleasure. Levi had never craved close proximity in his life, but once again, this stupid boy turned his convictions upside down. As the Titan began to caress his undercut, the man relaxed under Eren's touch and hummed before he could stop himself.

Eren chuckled satisfied and whispered “See? I was right, wasn't I.”

Levi opened his eyes, not knowing when exactly he had closed them, but tried his best intimidating stare. Eren chuckled again and increased the pressure over Levi's neck. The Captain growled, a strange sound coming from deep inside his chest and freed the hand trapped under Eren’s body.

Eren shamelessly moaned when his mate's hand went back to his neck, and inclined his head backwards, so that all Levi's palm lay over his neck.

“Shut it, if you want to see another day.” Threatened the raven, a soft pink coloring his cheeks. But the one to be rendered mute was him, as Eren suddenly crashed over the Captain in a boneless _purring_ fucking mess, his head resting complacently over Levi's thudding heart.

The raven willed his breathing and his heart rate to quiet down. He thanked Eren’s tipsy state, for only after a few minutes, he was able to speak “This good, brat?” Eren's hand still scruffing his undercut and the other one fisted in Levi’s shirt.

Eren hummed, drunk in endorphins, his eyes closed and a small smile curving his lips “This good.”

A few hours later, Petra walked into the gym to find her Captain sprawled on the mats with his Shifter curled all over him in a mess of limbs. She fished out her phone and started to take photos, sending the better ones to Hanji and Erwin, chuckling manically.

“Petra...what are you doing?! You know he will find who took the photo. The Captain will hunt you down and parade around with boots made of your skin!” murmured Erd panicked, Gunther wildly nodding behind him.

“Weeell...” whispered back the strawberry-blonde soldier, already retreating towards the door “I'm ready to risk my life for the greater good. Now come on, let's get out before Hanji storms here to mess with them instead of all the base!” Petra grinned evilly “It was time that someone gave that black smurf a taste of his own medicine!”

So much for Levi Ackerman being no Titan's bitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the title is taken from Adam Lambert's song Chokehold.  
> ヘ(￣ー￣ヘ) I'm trash, sorry.


	5. Hot and Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren blinked once, looking in disbelief at the brawl in front of him. He was so tired and confused and afraid of all this new condition! All he wanted was to go to Levi and forget everything, but no, this two stupid Alphas had to go in a fucking rut and keep him from joining his mate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!! I’m finally able to post the new chapter…I’m so sorry for the late update but work’s been hectic and until September I don’t know if I’ll be able to find the time to write…bear with me. But this chapter is a little longer than usual, so... forgive me?  
> WARNING: in this chapter we have light ReinerxEren, it's just a hint, so who doesn't ship this couple (I'm not a big fun myself) can be sure it's the first and last time. Also, warning for heavily sexual harassement (but I'm not sure if the scene can be defined as such.).
> 
> A special thank you to all of you that keep following this and leave a comment!! You really make my day <3  
> But without further delays, I’m proud to give you this little piece of my mind, where things spice up a little ;)

“Eren, get up.”

“…”

“Eren, it’s Annie’s bed. You know she hates it, when you leave your scent on her sheets…”

“I don’t stink!”

“I know you don’t, but it’s something between you Shifters, so…” Mikasa shrugged, not stopping her hand from caressing Eren’s back. He’d been hiding into her room since noon, after their shared training. It was scheduled that Eren practiced with Squad 104whenever he wasn’t with Levi and his Spec Op Squad, so the ravenette met the Shifter there.

He was a bit late, with a suspicious dreamy expression and an extreme case of bed head. Squad Leader Keith Shadis made him pay hell for that, making the boy run more laps than anyone else…well, except for Jean. The two toned haired guy earned as many laps because he couldn’t help but comment and bicker with the Shifter every two seconds.

Squad Leader Shadis fed up pretty soon and disciplined the two hot headed boys. Connie and Sasha almost risked to join them for laughing too hard at their friends' fate.

As soon as they were finished, the tanned Shifter had come to Mikasa, blushing like a tomato and asking to be hidden from everyone for the rest of the day.

She immediately agreed, not knowing what the boy was upset about. So she did what was natural: went to look for the one that likely caused Eren's distress. Mikasa was ready to chew her brother's stubborn head, surely he knew what was going on and he had to make up for it as soon as possible. But she didn’t find him anywhere around the base.

Mikasa asked Hanji, too, but they had been evasive… like they knew something but weren’t inclined to disclose it. In the end, the ravenette went back to her room, giving up the search for her brother and finding the tanned Shifter buried under Annie’s covers, with her own clothes on. She smiled lightly: Eren was a very stubborn, extroverted and straight forward person, but when Mikasa caught glimpses of this other side... well, she couldn’t help but think he was cute and needed her to protect him.

“But Annie’s scent calms me…” muttered the brunet, hiding his face into his arms and curling in himself more.

“Stupid brother…!” Mikasa swore under her breath. Eren tensed as she mentioned Levi and as she was trying to ask what the problem was, Annie opened the door vehemently.

The Beta Shifter had her eyes locked over her phone, her expression strangely amused. “Yo.” She greeted.

“Hi, Annie.” Replied Mikasa in a soft tone. She stayed seated over her Titan’s bed, but removed her hands from Eren. “You all right?” it was rare to see Annie smile in such a way. Well, Mikasa was used to her apparent icy exterior, and she often made her laugh, but it was behind their closed door.

“Mmh.” Hummed Annie, entering the room. She immediately spotted Eren and grunted “Here you are, princess.” Her voice was as monotone as always but her eyes were dancing “All the base is looking for you and you stay here, curled in the wrong bed – _my_ bed, like a damsel in distress!” she clicked her tongue in contempt. “Now I’ll have to wash the sheets. Again.”

Eren raised his head, his mop of hair a mess over his eyes. “What do you mean, ‘all the base’?!” he gulped “And I’m clean! I washed before coming here! This are Mikasa’s!” the Shifter pointed to his dark shirt and short shorts, that hugged his lithe form like a second skin, clearly part of the ravenette’s wardrobe.

Mikasa scowled at her Titan for upsetting Eren again, after she tried so hard to calm him “ _So_ , Annie. What were you looking at? New orders?” Sometimes Armin and Historia sent Erwin’s directives through their phones. But only simple ones, since briefs for missions were normally discussed in person. They were too important to leave any trace on the devices.

Annie laughed, throwing her head behind. When she regained breath, she was honestly grinning “I bet Jeager would like that.”

Eren sat straighter over the bed and grimaced, a bad omen forming in his mond “Oh, no…”

“Eren, what’s happening? Why everyone knows but me?!” Mikasa was getting angry. “Okay, I’m going to get the midget spill the beans.” She stood and stomped towards the door, cracking her knuckles.

Eren tried to stop the girl by grabbing her arm, but lost his balance and fell on the floor, face first.

Annie was laughing again and curled her white fingers around Mikasa’s wrist as she passed “Okay, Mikasa. I’ll tell you.” Annie looked at Eren’s red face “Better if you know directly from me and Jeager than form others… Here.” Mikasa stopped and looked over the screen of the phone that Annie was offering.

Mikasa blinked owlishly at the screen and raised her black orbs over Eren. The brunet averted his eyes as the blush reached his ears. He groaned out loud and hid the face behind his hands.

“Annie, what is… this?” asked the ravenette, incredulous. In front of her eyes was a photo of her brother peacefully sleeping over the gym mats. His face was almost serene: only a far shadow under his lids instead of his usual dark circles, brow free of any wrinkle, mouth relaxed and not curled downward in contempt. A hand was tangled in Eren’s chocolate locks, the other opened possessively over the small of his back. And sprawled over him was the tanned Shifter, his head over Levi’s chest and an expression of pure contentment upon his young face. Eren’s long legs were tangled in a mess with his mate’s, while his arms were bent beside his head, resting open like fans on Levi’s muscular chest.

“…Is this real?” asked Mikasa, her voice trembling with restrained emotion. “Annie, _is this real_?”

Annie looked at her, one of her thin eyebrows cocked “Of course it is, Mika. Armin sent it to me. He must have sent it to you, too.”

Mikasa stumbled over her bed and searched through the sheets to extract her phone. She tapped on its screen and instants later, her usually bored expression lighted up with a rare smile. Of course that blonde mushroom traitor sent Mikasa the photo.

Eren groaned again, asking himself if there was still someone who hadn’t seen the photo.

“That’s why I couldn’t find my brother today…” Mikasa barked a laugh. “He’s hiding, too!” Annie snorted and crossed the room, tugging the sheets still wrapped around Eren.

“Oh, my god, you two are so… so alike!” Mikasa was still laughing “Look at this! I haven’t seen Levi sleep so peacefully since he was three! Wait…” her eyes went wide and she looked at Eren, suddenly serious. “I didn’t even know Levi _could_ sleep! Oh Eren…” she went back to the Shifter, kneeled and hugged him “You’re so good for him!”

Eren whined, doubly embarrassed: Mikasa smiling and hugging him was a rare privilege and seeing the photo again –yes, Armin Arlert sent it to him too, made him remember how cozy and warm and perfect he had slept that few hours… the most quiet night he had had since his arrival to Legion. How perfect had smelled Levi and how the stupid vital waves enhancer had completely stopped buzzing in his neck.

Like that was the exact distance they should keep for everything to adjust in the right way. Eren was ashamed of himself, he’d never been as touchy feely as he was with Levi. And he was still angry at himself, not understanding his body and reactions anymore.

“Yeah, yeah, now go back to your Captain and your room. This is mine.” Said Annie and nudged Eren with her foot. “Shoo.”

“Ehy, I’m not a fucking dog!” said Eren, standing on his feet and leaving Mikasa’s arms.

“But I don’t know if Levi’s as good for you.” Added Mikasa, twisting one of Eren’s ears. “You didn’t swore so much when you arrived.”

“Ouch, let go, Mikasa! You’re ripping it off!” complained the tanned guy, but quickly put on his boots and made his way towards the door, since Annie started to kick him in the butt. “Okay, okay I’m going! Damn, you two old hags…” Eren closed the door to smiling Mikasa, as Annie flipped him the bird.

The Omega Shifter was now on his own. He knew he had to go back to his room, but he really didn’t want to face Levi. That morning, when he woke up to a screaming Hanji, he found himself incapable of leaving the warmth encasing him. Only when the crazy scientist approached them, Levi jerked awake effectively breaking the beautiful bubble that enclosed them. The raven had initially grabbed to Eren for dear life, as he didn’t want to leave, too. But as soon as Hanji noticed it and took out a camera, the Captain had bolted from the room. And from Eren’s arms.

The Shifter’s eyebrows knitted together: he didn’t know why, but that had upset him more than he was ready to admit.

Finally Levi had forgotten the stick he always shove in his ass, and Eren had been able to take advantage of that, but then Petra and Hanji had to go and ruin everything! Argh, he wanted to pull his hair out! And maybe punch in the throat the two nosy women!

How could he face Levi now? What could he say? Was the raven ready to admit that what had happened wasn’t a big deal? After all, Hanji and the Commander said that their… relationship had to include this kind of things… that is, things that mates do… Like, human and Titan Shifter. _Omega_ Titan Shifter.

Damn, it was all so complicated.

The brunet realized that his feet had taken him to the kitchen. The canteen was closed, but a small kitchenette was always at disposition and had everything one could hope to find for a late snack. Eren shrugged, supposed he could benefit of some tea to calm himself -or delay his return to the room.

The Shifter put the kettle on the stove and took a cup. Waiting for the water to boil, Eren breathed deeply, finding comfort in the quietness of the base. Commander Smith didn’t give Legion a real curfew –well, the recruits had it, but soldiers were free to manage their own free time as they deemed appropriate. But with the work they did, soldiers usually used their time to rest.

So, aside the bubbling kettle, the Titan Shifter was alone with his twirling thoughts. He heaved a sigh and rested his elbows over the counter, slightly bending forward, lowering his chin in his hands. Dark chocolate locks covered his eyes and Eren distantly thought that maybe he could ask Petra to help him cut it…

He heard a low whistle and he went to turn off the kettle, but stopped. Eren’s brow furrowed when he realized that the sound hadn’t come from the kettle, but from behind him. Twisting around, he found a buff blonde soldier propped against the jamb of the door, looking at him up and down, lips still puckered in a whistle.

“Reiner! What are you doing here?” greeted Eren with a half-smile. He wasn’t in for company, yet.

The blonde Shifter had his incredibly muscular arms crossed over his chest, and let his blue eyes slide over Eren, onto the snug shirt, his too short shorts, and down his long tanned legs, ending in his unfastened combat boots.

The Omega Shifter felt an odd prickle in his neck and a heaviness in his gut. He swallowed and rested his back against the counter… he liked Reiner, he really did, but for some reason, Eren didn’t want to expose himself to the other Titan in such a way. It didn’t feel right. “…Reiner?”

Reiner cleared his voice and finally looked Eren in the eyes “I got hungry.” He shrugged and walked toward the fridge, opening it. Before diving inside, he eyed again the brunet. The Omega Shifter kept saying to himself that he was imagining all the heated glances and hints coming from the other Titan.

“And you? What are you doing here? We waited for you with Hanji, this afternoon, but they told us that you needed some time alone…” the blonde Alpha Shifter grinned and bent to grab a container with some sandwiches. He chuckled, eyeing him again. “Well, I bet that with _those_ on, you needed to be alone.” Pause for effect. “Alone with the Captain, that is.”

“W-what?!” Eren startled and at the same moment, the kettle whistled loud, making him jump and scramble to turn the stove off and finally preparing his tea.

Reiner laughed at Eren’s reaction and his blushing face. “Come on, he’s your mate, there’s nothing bad in some… action. I’d doubt his virility if he left you alone in this state!” he munched on a sandwich, then put away the box with the remaining ones, always X-raying Eren.

The Omega Shifter laughed, releasing a strained sound. He shook his head, hoping to get rid of the self-consciousness he was feeling. Eren had always been aware of his good looking aspect, and was never afraid to flirt or exploit it, but something told him that now was not the moment to push it. Reiner was bonded, too, wasn’t he? He was confused, usually his instincts were damn right.

“O-oh, no, that’s not… that’s not the case at all!” He said as he poured the hot water into his cup. “I was in Mikasa and Annie’s room… in fact, these are Mikasa’s clothes, not mine. And I haven’t seen” he swallowed “Levi at all, today.”

“Mmh.” Hummed Reiner chewing. “Pity. For your Captain, obviously.” He winked.

“Nah, I don’t think so. That man is one of a kind, sometimes I even doubt he has feelings at all…” Eren sipped his tea to quiet the obstinate Omega that stirred in his insides, its imaginary fur standing on air, pushing him away from this Titan and towards his mate, to look for him and the safety that only he could give. His Omega did not want Reiner, not now, not ever. The big Shifter was _not_ his Alpha.

Eren grimaced.

“You all right?” asked Reiner, and the concern in his voice sounded real.

“Yes! I only forgot the sugar.” Eren replied too quickly, but smiled apologetically. The brunet stiffened, realizing at how closer Reiner was, his big hands extended towards him. Instinctively, Eren turned towards the counter clutching the cup to his chest and stretching to the shelves to get the stupid sugar and get the fuck away from there.

“Wait, let me.” Said Reiner, and thanks to his built, he only had to raise his arm and the sugar was already in his hand. Eren, that was not used to being dwarfed by another one, and at such a close proximity, tensed.

As Reiner lowered his arm, something shifted in the air between them: the chip in the Titans’ neck sparked to life and he pushed against Eren. The Alpha Shifter growled low in his throat as he inhaled the brunet’s scent and felt his bothered state through the vital waves enhancer.

“He doesn’t care very well about you, does he?” murmured the blonde guy, pressing his chest against Eren’s back and his hips against the other’s ass. “Don’t you feel lonely? You’re a precious little thing, Eren… you’re an Omega, you need the attention. Enduring all this alone it’s not good for you.” Reiner’s voice dropped an octave.

The brunet was squeezed between the counter and the big idiot that was actually sniffing his hair. He could feel his heat radiating from the few clothes he was wearing, could feel the uncomfortable jolts coming from the vital waves enhancer that resonated with the Alpha’s. Reiner was aroused and his lust arrived to him clearly from the waves jangling between their chips. Reiner wanted him. The Alpha wanted an Omega. Not his legitimate Omega, but one that was still confused and unclaimed, that was still openly receptive, that could still be claimed by any Alpha…

But all that was wrong. Eren wanted to puke, didn’t want to spend another second there, wanted only to curl between Levi’s strong arms, wrapped into his soothing smell. Close his eyes to reopen them and see those blue-grey orbs looking back at him.

“I could take care of you, if you wanted… I’m sure we can convince Bert to accept you. He likes you, too, you know?” Reiner buried his nose into Eren’s dark locks. “Besides, it’s not like you would be my mate, both of us already have one…” Reiner chuckled and pressed against Eren even more, letting his hands roam freely over the tanned boy’s sides, curling on his thighs, playing with the hem of the shorts. Goosebumps raised upon tanned skin as the Alpha’s fingers played under the fabric of the shorts.

Eren was utterly shocked, he never thought that Reiner could be so shameless and careless about his bond with Bert. How could he put their bond on the background? How dare he insult _his_ bond with Levi?!

“What the heck are you saying?!” Eren’s temper flared, obscuring the hazy feeling the chip forced on him and regaining some lucidity “That we could be what, fuck-buddies?! That you can ignore you bond with Bertholdt? Well, piss off, you fucktard!”

Eren was positively pissed now, he put down the cup with too much force over the counter, spilling its content, and tried to elbow Reiner in the stomach. He didn’t think he could move the bigger Titan, but wanted to make his point.

“OUCH, ehy!” well, at least Reiner still felt the pain. “What are you doing?” the blonde guy caught Eren’s wrists in his hands and turned the boy to face him. “What was that for?”

“Let me go, you big oaf!” growled Eren, and the Omega inside him hissed in pride. “You’re not _my_ Alpha!”

“But I could be! I could help you, why don’t you understand? This stubbornness of yours isn’t going to do you any good! And that Captain of yours… my god, you two are so alike it’s exhausting.” Reiner rolled his eyes.

“I don’t care, I’m fine! _He_ ’s fine for _me_! Mind your own Omega and business!”

“Captain Ackerman is a fine man, I agree with you.” Said Reiner, unperturbed by Eren’s hostility. “I myself wouldn’t mind to try him once… or twice.” He grinned at Eren, his pupils blown and his mind fuzzy with shameless lust.

He fucking _dared_ say that about _his_ mate, grinning at _him_. Eren was feeling murderous and swore to bite Reiner’s nose at the first occasion. He wanted to tear off his balls, but that was utterly gross. So nose it should be. The Omega Titan growled, showing his canines and snapping his jaw at the bigger guy.

Reiner seemed pleased by this reaction. “My, you’re a feisty one…” his smirk grew as he opened his arms, forcing Eren to do the same and pressing once again against that lithe tanned body. “I’d really like to taste you. And believe me, when I say that I could give you things that even Levi Ackerman could only dream about.” The blonde Shifter was now whispering against Eren’s jaw, his hands closed around the brunet’s wrists.

“How dare, you…! Let me go!” Eren was growling and shivering in rage, trying to avoid any unnecessary contact with the other. Now his chip was surely transmitting anger and fury through the waves, not confusion anymore.

“I could give you my knot.” Whispered Reiner again, his breath hot and wet against Eren’s smooth cheek. He pressed his hips against Eren’s and the tanned boy could feel the hot bulge of Reiner’s semi hard cock on his groin. The brunet wanted to punch him in the balls. Hard. He tried again to free himself, but the other Titan was too strong.

“I don’t even know what the fuck are you saying, but I swear to god that if you touch me, Levi will find you and use your filthy tongue to mop Hanji’s lab and their minions’ asses!”

“Mh, that’s a good one, kiddo.” Said an amused voice behind Reiner. “I think our beloved Captain is rubbing off on you.”

“Uh?” the blonde Shifter barely had time to register the new voice, that was yanked away from Eren by his collar, a leg between his feet made him stumble and fall on the floor.

Panting, Eren lifted his eyes to see deep brown orbs looking at him, paired with a Cheshire freckled grin.

“Ymir…” the tanned boy whispered.

“Yo, newbie.” She greeted Eren, then kicked Reiner on his leg, hard. “Yo, loser.”

Reiner growled at the freckled Shifter, affronted in his status of Alpha claiming an Omega. “What do you want, female? Don’t you see I’m occupied?” he was advancing towards Ymir, menacing in all his height.

“Back off, idiot!” snorted the other Alpha, looking at him in the eye. “That’s not your Omega!”

“You can’t have him!”

“I don’t want him, shit for brains! I’m already bonded and you are, too!” Eren assisted at the confrontation trying to stand his ground, even as the two Alpha Shifters bared their teeth and snarled at each other, their eyes possessed by ancient forces. At the display of sheer aggressiveness the Omega in his guts mewled and wailed for him to run and find Levi. His vital waves enhancer was resonating oddly with the other two, a sound that grated his nerves and made him gnash his teeth instead of soothing him like Levi had done just that morning.

Ymir kept trying to reason with the other guy. “He’s already bonded, Reiner. Don’t do anything you know you’ll regret later.” Her voice was made of steel, but sadness flashed in her molasses eyes for the briefest moment. Before Reiner could launch himself at Ymir, the girl raised her arms to shield herself and commanded to Eren. “Take him from the neck!”

In the next moment, Reiner was over Ymir, trying to reach her neck, both of them snarling and snapping their jaws. Eren blinked once, looking in disbelief at the brawl in front of him. He was so tired and confused and afraid of all this new condition! All he wanted was to go to Levi and forget everything, but no, this two stupid Alphas had to go into a fucking rut and keep him from joining his mate.

Anger flared into teal orbs, a growl bubbling in his throat, and like a veil had been lifted from his brain, pushed by the insistent Omega in his insides and the annoying chip, he sprinted forward and jumped over Reiner’s back, grabbing with his arm the large shoulders.

The big blonde Shifter tried to dislodge Eren, but was too occupied with Ymir and still hazy from lust and fury, to pay attention on two fronts. So even if he was an Omega, even if something inside him told him to low his head and respect those Alphas, the brunet clawed at Reiner’s neck with all his strength, sinking his fingers into the thick skin. With his legs around Reiner’s wide chest, Eren’s snarls added to the others.

“Er-en! Quic-k!” Ymir’s voice was strained, as she scrambled to escape the bigger boy’s grasp around her own throat. The brunet doubled his efforts, not needing further explanation: even if he was a new Shifter, he instinctively knew that the neck –where the chip was allocated, was the Shifters’ weakness.

Ymir kneed Reiner in his jaw, the blonde guy scrunched his eyes and stopped his movements long enough for Eren to finally sank his teeth in his neck, breaking the skin just over the chip was implanted, his nails red with the scratches he gave the bigger Titan.

As Reiner felt Eren’s bite, his arms lost all the strength, releasing a coughing and disheveled Ymir. The blonde Alpha collapsed on the tile floor, shook by convulsions, his body closing in defense as it saw the menace for the vital waves enhancer. Eren was still panting hard and clutching Reiner’s skin in his bloody mouth when Ymir’s hand closed on his shoulder calling him back to reality. Now that the tension was passed, their vital waves turned back to normal, every single one giving off its own pulse, every Shifter regaining their lucidity.

“It’s okay, you can let him go now. He won’t do anything.” She said, her injuries already smoking and healing.

The Omega Titan let go of the Alpha with a hiss, _try that again and see what happens to you_. Reiner still wasn’t moving, his breath heavy and his eyes foggy.

The freckled Shifter heaved a sigh and rested against the counter, eyeing Eren’s bloody mouth. “Wash that shit off, you look like a zombie.” Her lopsided grin twisting her features as Eren washed himself in the sink “You never cease to surprise, Jeager. When I felt Reiner’s waves going went out of control, I thought I had to wait for Ackerman and his Squad or Hanji, to put him down, but you are a _Rogue_.” She chuckled “I really didn’t see that coming!”

“What the heck is a _Rogue_?! Another type of monster? Like a Super Saiyan of fourth level? I hope I won’t grow all that body hair…” Eren grimaced as he toweled his face. He was seriously fed up with all those names they were giving him.

Ymir laughed “No, idiot. But that would make Hanji orgasm, I’m sure. A Rogue is an Omega that can stand an Alpha. Face him, confront him. Not only lower his eyes and cower in a corner.”

Eren blinked owlishly “Oh. Then I’m happy to be a Rogue thing.” He shrugged and then grinned proudly “Must be because I train with Levi or Mike every other day. I’m used to bigger fuckers who beat the shit out of me and I still give few fucks. At the end of the day I’m still standing.”

“Mmh” Ymir hummed appreciatively “That could be, but I think that you were a damned bastard since the beginning. Not many people would have launched themselves at Reiner in that way. And you don’t seem that fazed at all.”

Eren curled his lips over his teeth, looking at the big blonde on the floor “I was really pissed. I still am. I saw a lot of things before Legion, Ymir. I’m not easily impressed.” The freckled Shifter nodded, looking at Reiner amused. Eren asked “But what happened here, Ymir? Why did Reiner… I don’t know, he’s always been cool and rather collected, why did he become so pushy? Why assault you?”

The girl heaved a sigh, a hand slowly massaging her brows “It’s not so simple, Jeager… I can’t tell you why Reiner decided to went crazy right now, but it’s not the first time this happened. And it won’t be the last, I fear.” Her lips thinned in a serious line. “I don’t want you to misunderstand me, Reiner behaved like a hungry dog in rut.” she landed another kick at the blonde Alpha, who grunted in pain, his wounds smoking as they were already healing “But he reacted only on instinct, it wasn’t really him who-“

“Ymir!” Historia entered the little kitchenette running, shortly followed by Armin. The two blond fairies looked at the odd scene and Armin approached Eren, noticing how upset he was.

“Ehy, Eren, are you all right?” he put a hand over the brunet’s shoulder, his grip like an anchor for the Omega.

“Yeah, I think I’ll be in a few minutes…” Eren brought a hand over his neck, massaging the hot skin there.

“What was happening here?” asked Historia, looking at her Titan, putting her hands over the hips in a motherly way. “I received the signal.” She pointed to her watch, a small red light blinking on the dial “I supposed you sent it by mistake, but…” the golden haired girl looked at Reiner “I suppose I should have brought reinforcements.”

“Nah, it’s fine, baby.” Ymir assured her mate. “Me and Jeager here were enough to contain one of Reiner’s relapses.” Historia tensed, knowing what that implied, and so did Armin.

“We have to inform Hanji. And Commander Smith, obviously.” Said Armin, already tapping away upon his phone.

“…Obviously.” Came a groan from the floor. The big Shifter was slowly standing from the floor, patting dust from his trousers and clutching at his head. “Ow, I feel like something run over me. Come on guys, go easy on me… we were only having a friendly conversation.”

“You call that shit ‘friendly’?!” hissed Eren.

Reiner shrugged, embarrassed “We were both far from our mates in a moment of instability… things went down fast. It happens.”

“Yeah, to you only, dipshit.” Scolded Ymir again. “You know you’re instable because of your peculiar bonding with another Titan…” she heaved a long sigh “Why don’t you take precautions?”

While Ymir grilled Reiner, Armin sighed and with his hand, started to pat reassuringly Eren’s back “Eren… don’t hold it against Reiner… he’s a good guy, but very forward with his desires. Unluckily, it’s an Alpha’s trait to be forceful. You’re a bonded Shifter, but you’re still unmated. So, as an Alpha, the stupid thinks it’s his duty to help you stabilize. And the vital waves enhancer translate this sentiment in strong attraction.” Armin shot a look towards Reiner ”Anyway, this doesn’t mean he had to disrespect or harm you.”

“What? All that was natural?!” asked bewildered Eren.

“Well, natural for Alphas.” Said Ymir. Reiner had the decency to shut up, as he was starting to realize how far he pushed his advances. He was blushing, a hand scratching at his own neck.

“But Ymir doesn’t seem bothered by me even if she’s an Alpha.”

“Hey, I prefer chicks over dicks, buddy!” she said, almost offended. Historia swatted her and blushed slightly.

Armin groaned, still patting Eren’s back “It’s all right if you’re angry and we’ll surely report this to Hanji so that they could check on Bert and him tomorrow… If Reiner went out of control, it means his chip is unstable. But being bonded to another Shifter is more complicated than the bond you share with Levi, or the one that Ymir shares with Historia…” the little blondie was thinking aloud. “So please, don’t take all this too seriously, okay?” he smiled tentatively.

“Yeah, well… I’m sorry. I think I let my guard down around you and instinct kicked in. All with the fact that you’re still fresh and unclaimed…” Reiner shrugged, and now he looked pretty embarrassed, not at all like the horny Casanova of minutes before.

“Yeeahhh, instincts.” Drawled Ymir and shot a look at Reiner, not letting him off anytime soon “Nothing to do at all, with the bomb booty that says hello from those illegally short shorts!”

“Actually, Eren, you could mind your surrounding a little more?” Added Armin, making it sound like a question. “Now, why don’t I accompany you to your room and Historia and Ymir take Reiner to Bert?”

The blonde Alpha groaned “Yeah, let’s go, babysitters.” Then he looked sheepishly at Eren “I’m sorry, man. I-“ he tried to say something more, but thought better, an apologetic look straining his features.

“Shush, you’re not allowed to speak, beast. Use this time to think of a good excuse you can use to justify your behavior with your mate and Captain Ackerman.” The freckled Shifter kicked the blonde again, laughing evilly, Historia trailing behind them.

“Good night, Armin. Rest well Eren.” She waved and the three were gone.

The Omega Shifter regarded Reiner with a rather cold stare, not prone to forgive him so early, but accepted his excuses nonetheless. He was starting to understand how the chip could influence one’s personality, but still… the big Alpha could have resisted a little more! How dared he try to claim what was not his?!

“Come on, let’s get you to your owner.” Armin joked, and pulled the brunet towards the corridor that lead to his room. The blondie noticed that the Omega Titan didn’t correct him and chuckled. “Seriously, Eren, don’t dwell on it.” Armin’s blue eyes were filled with worry. “This isn’t really my place to say it, but… it’s not the first time that Reiner went a little overboard…”

Eren was still thoughtful, but his friend’s voice caught his attention. “Ymir told me as much. It’s happened before?”

Armin nodded. “Yeah, but with other soldiers… and…” he blushed furiously “with me.” He cleared his voice and continued. “But neither of us was so influenced by it all, I suppose because we’re boring humans. To have Ymir decide to knock him down in such a way… I suppose his advances went a lot further than what he’s ever done before.”

Eren chuckled and elbowed him “You’re a genius working for one of the most secretive organization in the whole world… and you define yourself a boring human?!”

“Anyway” Armin was glad he was able to cheer up his friend, even if it was at his own expense, “the only Omega we had till now was Bert, and he’s always been bonded to Reiner. The balance between those two is precarious and Hanji and Moblit keep a close watch to them.” Armin eyed him cautiously “But you’re here, now. And you’re still unclaimed, Eren. I- sorry, this is not my business, but…”

Eren rolled his eyes, they were almost arrived at Levi’s quarters “Armin, say what you want, I promise I don’t bite.”

“Well, you saw that the more you stay here and train with Captain Ackerman’s squad, the more your chip will be subjected to stress, and this could happen again, and I don’t want this to happen to you-“

“Wait, wait, Armin-“ Eren stopped and looked at the smaller guy “What are you saying?”

Armin looked everywhere but in Eren’s eyes “What I’m trying to say, is… is that maybe you could… take in consideration. The possibility to, you know…” he shrugged “To bond with Captain Ackerman. That is, to _really_ bond him.”

Eren was stunned. And not only because of the incredible event that was hearing those words coming right from Armin’s mouth, but because for the first time in the whole forsaken day, Eren relaxed at the mere thought of claim. His Omega purred in pleasure, wanting that final bond, the protection it promised, the peace it would bring.

“Okay. Okay, I’m hallucinating, you certainly didn’t say that and I really need to sleep in Levi’s bed. Good night Armin, thank you.”

Armin’s surprise transformed in a chuckle, seeing the brunet’s reaction and his unconscious admission. “You’re welcome, Eren. But please, speak to the Captain before he hears from Hanji or the Commander what happened tonight.” He waved, and as Eren entered Levi’s quarters, he turned on his way “Good night, Eren!”

“Yeah, yeah, mom, I’ll do that, so Levi will be able to shave my head and eyebrows when he knows. Night, Ar.” The brunet Shifter smiled despite the grim future awaiting him. As he closed the door, he remembered something that Reiner said “Oh! I didn’t ask Armin what a ‘knot’ is.” He shrugged “Well, I suppose it’s not important, or else Hanji and Bert would have told me.”

The room was dark, luckily. So Levi was still speaking with Erwin, but if Armin and Historia had already left the commanding hall, the meeting had finished and the raven would return soon.

Eren’s skin prickled with anticipation and the need to wash away the detestable scent of another Alpha from his skin. He wanted to scratch his arms and neck raw, burn his clothes. His temper flared again, and he kicked his boots with sharp movements, took a clean towel and entered the shower.

When he returned to the main room, he was still seething at the memory of the events of the evening. Eren dried his long hair with a small towel and tucked on another pair of Mikasa’s shorts, one she gave him the first day he arrived. Levi had gotten him a real pajama, but it was scratchy and baggy. Girls clothes instead were so soft! No one knew he wore them until tonight… damn, he had strutted along the base in Mikasa’s tight clothes even when Levi told him not to show himself outside this very room!

Eren sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. He was looking for a shirt when his eyes dropped over Levi’s bed. Better, over the white button up, over Levi’s bed. That was strange: Levi never left anything around. Maybe he had wanted to wear that for the meeting but decided in the end for his usual training gear… The brunet reached for the soft shirt and looked at it. Immaculate, as expected. He debated with himself for a few moments, but the Omega in his belly had a rough day, and after that night confrontation he felt completely exhausted, wanting only to cuddle with his Alpha, to feel secure and protected. So after a glance at his back to ascertain he was truly alone, he brought the fabric to his nose and inhaled.

All the stress, the frustration, the insecurities that had built up along the day, the hurt and affront caused by Reiner… everything was being washed away by the mere scent of his mate. Eren almost sobbed in relief. He finally was where he had to be, after his captivity, after being thrown in Legion, after nightmares and crazy Alphas… Levi was the one fixed point in that storm.

Without thinking twice, Eren put Levi’s shirt on, closing only a few buttons in the middle of the long raw. Laughed when he realized the shirt was too short for him, barely covering his ass. He laughed even harder at the thought that he was wearing only Ackermans’ clothing. He turned off the lights and crawled into the Captain’s bed, sinking under the warm duvet and the soft pillow that smelled exactly like his mate.

Eren hummed content, thinking that a good night sleep would be worth of Levi’s rage for this property trespassing. He left the hold he had on his thoughts, heavy limbs lulled by Levi’s scent.

A few hours later, when a sourly looking raven entered his room, he noticed the mattress on the floor was empty.

“Where the hell is that brat?” Levi had been in a three hours meeting with Erwin, fucking Hanji and some higher ups in conference call from the other side of the world, he was tired but the last time he saw the kid was 24 hours ago. What if something happened with the chip? But he would have felt that, right? Had Eren the intention to avoid him for longer? Damn, today the raven had to bear those Shitty Glasses and Commander Eyebrows, plus all his fucking squad, making fun of him for the photo taken by Petra.

“Shit. They’ll rub it to my face until I’m eighty.” Levi swore under his breath while taking off his clothes. “Or until some of them snuff it.” That was a good idea, but right now was not the time for planning a mass murder, his head ached and he wanted to plant his foot into Eren’s face for ignoring him-

Levi stopped in the dark. He heard something. There was someone into his room. Instinctively, he crouched and tensed again, his right hand over the handle of his dagger, ready for any attack. He strained his hearing and concentrated on the direction the sound came from.

His…bed? He listened, still. Was that _snoring_?!

Levi reached for the little lamp over the bedside table. And unmistakably, the one tangled in his sheets, clutching his pillow like a school girl, was Eren fucking Jeager, snoring softly with the most blissful expression Levi had seen on him while asleep.

The raven was dumbstruck and stood observing the younger man like a creep for a good five minutes. Then Eren mumbled in his sleep and the chip in Levi’s neck gave a pleasant spark.

He run to the bathroom to take a good shower, hoping that all he saw was an hallucination and once he returned, he would find his bed empty. He tried to ignore the insistent ache that settled in the middle of his stomach at the idea of an empty bed.

Growling in frustration, he toweled quickly his pale skin and wore his night robes –just a pair of plaid pants, only to go back and find himself facing the same scene.

“Fuck it!” spat in a breath Levi “Like hell I’m going to sleep on the floor!” and so he shifted the covers, sitting on his own bed. He turned off the light and the room was filled with darkness once again.

“Oi, stupid brat! Scoot over.” He shout-whispered to Eren. Who went on sleeping like a log. “Tomorrow you’re _so_ washing the sheets!” He hissed.

The raven heaved a sigh, finally resting his body upon the soft mattress… he shifted, looking for the perfect position to fall asleep in, and he totally hated the warmth under the sheets, the soft breath of his Shifter and the thought of his very solid presence almost -okay, completely against him: Eren had just turned to Levi’s side, searching for the cool touch of his skin. Damn, the boy was a little heater!

Yeah, Levi totally hated it.

(Not).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don’t be too harsh on Reiner… I love him, but he’s an Alpha, thus an A-hole. I’m sorry Reiner!!!  
> And I'm sorry for the lack of Levi, I promise wonderful Ereri moments in the next chapter <3


	6. This is how we do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the stillness of the grey morning, the Titan Shifter surged like the tide of sparkles that ignited his body and crawled over his own pale shore, conquering and devouring it like the ocean that poured from his teal eyes. The boy raised on hands that dipped in the mattress, slid his lithe body over Levi’s, straddling his hips with long, caramel skinned legs bent along paler sides.  
> And finally fell like water over that dried mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are with the 6th chapter!! I never thought this odd idea of mine would go this far! I'm really impressed by the support it's gaining, so...thank you so much!!!  
> I don't want to waste your time, so read and have some action (fucking finally, guys!).

Hot and comfortable. Floating into low waters, calm and transparent, bright with the whiteness of the sand. The slow movement of the waves cradled his body, making it so light… he heaved a sigh of bliss, inhaling the perfect scent that washed his soul into that peace.

He had been imprisoned, restrained, experimented on. They took him and destroyed his life, leaving him with nothing but a monstrous identity, forgotten in a putrescent basement. He didn’t know how long his mind was frozen in suspension, but now he could look at those grim times and say that it was all gone. It was in the past. He could look straight into the nightmare and still feel safe, lulled by those peaceful waves: like the storm raging outside your window. It’s there, you see it, but you’re inside your home, the presence of the discrete yet solid glass barrier of the window separating you from the rain.

His hands pawed at his barrier, finding it underneath him, so very warm and so very soft. Eren’s eyes opened a fraction and took in only few details in the dim early morning light. His brain was still submerged in the sweet dream of instants before and the tanned boy pressed against the warm source of his bliss.

For once the vital waves enhancer wasn’t buzzing with annoying jerks of electricity, instead giving him a pleasant sensation of fulfillment. Slowly, Eren realized that his vision kept changing: up and down, up and down. He regained enough consciousness to know that he had his right leg up over the solid profile of a thigh, chest pressed by strong arms, hips leaned to a sharp hip bone. His nose caught the same familiar scent of the dream, fresh and homey and nostalgic and his skin rose in goosebumps.

What was happening? Where was the sweet scent coming from?

Eren rose his head and blinked owlishly. He sniffed the air and found himself tangled with a raven haired man, still asleep and holding him close. The Shifter looked at the slightly parted lips of said man, thin and dried in his slumber and decided that that was the origin of the otherworldly scent. He neared to the other’s face, inhaled and tasted that very scent on his tongue.

He had to have it on his mouth, in his throat. Eren wanted to swallow its essence and keep it safe inside his stomach, near his heart. Into his core. Because it could give him the peace he was looking for. Almost on purpose, the chip in Eren’s neck sparkled to life, prompting the boy to proceed, to trust his instincts, to reach and to take.

So in the stillness of the grey morning, the Titan Shifter surged like the tide of sparkles that ignited his body and crawled over his own pale shore, conquering and devouring it like the ocean that poured from his teal eyes. The boy raised on hands that dipped in the mattress, slid his lithe body over Levi’s, straddling his hips with long, caramel skinned legs bent along paler sides. And finally fell like water over that dried mouth.

Something in his guts told Eren’s still half asleep brain that the Captain longed for this, too. Even if he would rather wear pink tights than admit it.

But that was a thought he could analyze later, because the moment Eren’s lips closed over the raven’s ones was the moment of truth: he felt like a castaway reaching the ground again, air finally entering his aching lungs, filling him to the brim with life. Eren went limp against the solid presence of his sleeping mate, worshipping his mouth, licking and drinking every little drop of him.

The peacock eyed boy traced with his nose Levi’s sharp profile, his chin, the curve of his mouth, his perfect nose and the closed eyelids that hid expressive stormy orbs. Sometimes a red tongue would follow to taste the fragrant skin, because touching and smelling and pressing as near as physically possible wasn’t enough.

Once the Omega gave up any resistance put on by a hazy mind, he concentrated only on Levi’s mouth, nibbling the serious line that spoke blunt words and naked truth. That talked to him, calling his name. Eren sucked at the lower lip, the scent depositing finally over his taste buds, but it was not enough! He needed so much more…

The Shifter went on lost in his ministrations and slowly, on instinct, Levi responded, moving their mouths together, lips pliant and soft on each other. The raven heaved a deep and relaxed breath, sucking in Eren’s scent. Levi’s eyes were still firmly closed, but his body responded to the ancestral call, moving on its own and bringing his calloused hands over Eren’s thighs, slowly, resting on the curve of his ass, under the hem of his shorts.

The sensation and the willingness of his mate prompted Eren –the Omega purred in bliss, because _those_ were the hands that belonged upon that booty! Eren, already straddling his mate, surged again and lay on the other man’s chest, feeling the loud thump of his heart. With his hands the tanned boy traced the Captain’s naked sides, his fingers following every dip that the muscles draw under alabaster skin, up on his stomach, pectorals, stopping upon the irregular wave of his collarbones, where Levi’s pulse was almost touchable.

And still their mouth were connected, moving and testing and nipping. Levi gasped when Eren’s hands traced his body and the boy took advantage of the moment to sink into the hot inferno of that shameless mouth, exploring it tentatively with his tongue.

The taste inside was stronger and heady, making Eren’s hips buckle unconsciously, rubbing against the raven’s groin.

Eren emitted a sound like a strangled mewl, spilled it into the other’s throat and that sinful combination woke Levi up in the most effective way.

“Eren? Wha-“ The raven tried to speak, but the brunet’s tongue was still tracing the raven’s canines, preventing him to form words. Levi held his breath and tried to put his shit together… usually the Captain was quick to catch on his surroundings and the situation he was in, used to wake up during the night for emergencies, but now it was not the case.

The sleep he had fallen in was so deep that Levi had to rebuilt every single layer of his defenses, disarmed under the weight of his mate. After a handful of seconds he realized he had Eren sprawled over himself so he tried to push back the Shifter… but his arms were like useless jelly appendages, not responding to his will, as said arms _were still very busy in letting him feeling the perfect roundness of Eren’s ass –for fuck’s sake!_

“Er-“ he tried again, but on the ‘r’, Levi bit Eren’s tongue and the boy moaned in pleasure, thrusted his hips against the other again and sank his nails in Levi’s shoulders. And _fuck his life_ Levi responded for the second time, meeting Eren mid-thrust, stars appearing behind his eyelids to go tumbling down his spine.

The raven didn’t know what in the seven hells was happening, didn’t even know if he was dreaming or not –he strongly hoped not, because, well… if all that was his mind fault, Levi would be beyond salvage. All those stimulations, the damned chip throwing jolts and sparkles around like the fourth of July and the most fucking-gorgeous-walking-thing grabbing at him for dear life… Levi Ackerman was in a fuckton of trouble.

He tried so hard to understand where the up and down were, what was happening and when Eren passed to mouth his neck, the raven groaned out loud. _That was more like it._

Eren giggled.

The obnoxious sound and the fact that Levi had never heard the boy giggle before, allowed the man to took Eren by his arms and roll them on the bed until he was hovering on the boy, pinning him to the mattress. Okay, that could escalate in something bad really quickly, so _–was that his white shirt he left on the bed yesterday?! Wait… and were those the most illegally minimal shorts his shameless sister-!_

Levi wanted to pull his hair, because he was barely awake, in desperate need of coffee, all the blood that could make his brain work blocked down south in a proud waving flag and his thought were a jumble of mess _and those caramel skinned legs surely weren’t helping his case!_

“Oi, brat!” Called Levi again, shooting Eren a thousand years of infernal pain glare. In response the Omega Shifter tried to reach Levi’s face, seeking his lips, with a call from the chip like the one Levi felt at the gym a few days before, when the boy wanted his mate to keep on what he was doing.

Dang, the jolts that quacked the raven’s body were enough to make his resolution quiver, but Levi was not such a low life as to take advantage of the situation. Besides the idiot in his arms seemed still half asleep! There wasn’t any certainty that he was able to understand what he was doing and Levi didn’t lay a finger over someone that drunk. Even if he was drunk on some strange pheromones and mind-fucking electric impulse.

Nah, if it had to be, it would be ten times better bending the brat’s will when he was completely sober. Levi almost smirked as the little Hanji-like voice in his brain shouted _challenge accepted!_

“You damned pain in the arse, wake up or I swear I’ll make you read princess’ stories to Erwin’s eyebrows before going to sleep for a month! And make Kirschtein watch.” He slapped the boy on his head, effectively waking him up.

“Uhn?” If Levi were not so pissed and so out of breath -and aroused, he could of thought his Shifter was immensely cute. Stupid Caribbean sleepy eyes. He slapped him again for good measure. Damn, that brat had worked him up real good.

“Captain? What are you doing?” Croaked the tanned boy, confused, looking up from his horizontal position.

“ _Tch._ Are you shitting me, kid? What are _you_ doing, in my bed?” Growled Levi and in his confused anger, he was still pinning Eren to the bed, hands fisted around his wrists.

Eren unconsciously licked his lips, seeing his mate’s ones curling over his teeth. He wanted to pass his tongue on that spiteful mouth, wanted to mould it against his, wanted to-

A gasp of realization and Levi smirked, assisting at the moment reality crushed against Eren.

“Iih!” The Shifter inhaled hysterically, remembering what he had just done. Not because he was afraid of Levi’s reaction, no. He knew the man and in those blue-grey orbs he saw no anger, only confusion, concern and mockery. And sleepiness, too. That was endearing.

Levi let Eren go, and the tanned Titan brought the hands over his face, to hide his shame. Damn, finally he had a good night sleep, the first in god only knows how long, and he had to wake up and ruin everything! As if his connection with the Captain wasn’t already a mess!

Eren groaned aloud and Levi rolled his eyes. “Okay, Rapunzel, stop with the sighing princess act and spit it out. What the fuck happened here?!”

Eren raised his eyes, but cursed the decision, since Levi slept in his pants only and was now regarding him in all his sexy messy half nakedness. _Damn_ , he wanted to pass his fingers into those ruffled jet black hair.

“W-well…” tried Eren, swallowing. He could still feel the lingering taste of Levi’s mouth over his tongue. “I don’t know?” Levi arched a thin eyebrow and the boy went on. “That is, I know. I think I know.” Eren inhaled deeply and resigned himself to explain his shameful behavior.

“I was sleeping so well for the first time in ages that when I woke up… well, no, half woke up because you woke me up now with that hit over my head, and sorry but couldn’t you be gentler? It’s not like I was prodding you with a barrel!” He kicked Levi’s leg with his foot, dodging the question.

The two of them were sitting in front of each other on Levi’s bed, with the raven cross-sitting between Eren’s slightly parted legs, the boy propped over his elbows and eyeing the older man. Neither of them seemed to particularly mind the position.

The Captain snorted, annoyed. “Are you serious? Kid, you were ready to jump my bones! I was sleeping-“ Levi stopped in his speech, because he too realized that had slept wonderfully. He had always been a light sleeper, tossing and turning, thoughts and problems following him even in his slumber. But not that night. Not when he shared his bed with his Titan, the boy tightly pressed against him, like a barrier against the outside world.

Levi closed his mouth for a moment, regarding Eren, who had his thick eyebrows pulled together in a childish pout. “Brat.” He spit in the end, and kicked him in retaliation. “You were prodding me, though. With _your_ barrel.” He pointed to Eren’s half hard dick.

“What?! You pervert!” Eren blushed the fifty shades of red, grabbing the hem of Levi’s shirt to cover his groin. “D-don’t… it’s physiological! It’s morning, the sun rises, and so does everything that’s healthy! But what would you know, mummies don’t have blood anymore!”

Levi clicked his tongue amused and patted his temple with a finger. “Nh. You say so now, but I have recorded indelibly in my mind the sounds you were making as you-“

“Aaaargh! Don’t say it, shut up! SHUT UP!” Eren interrupted him, bringing his hands to cover his ears.

“Deny it, if you want.” Shrugged Levi, a smug grin plastered on his face. He thanked the skies that his own dick had decided to collaborate and go back to almost normal. “But we both know what happened. Speaking about more serious things…” he kicked Eren harder, since the boy was still refusing to hear him. “Like I said… more serious things.” He thinned his eyes, scanning Eren’s appearance. “What happened yesterday?”

Eren blinked. Levi sighed and elaborated, pointing an accusatory fingers at the Shifter. “Don’t think for an instant that I don’t know that something must have happened to upset you, if you went to sleep in my fucking bed, with my fucking shirt, and the first thing you try to do is to suck my soul from my mouth.”

Eren stopped breathing and for a brief moment considered to die just there and then, holding his breath until he was a blue corpse. But then he remembered Reiner’s viscid hands on his thighs, his breath over his nape, the insinuations against him and his mate…

Eren’s teal eyes lighted up with the fire that Levi was starting to know so well.

And so Eren explained to Levi what happened. At the beginning he stuttered, ashamed of his own carelessness, even when everyone warned him about Shifters’ precarious state… he ignored it all, and in the end this almost lead him and Reiner to do something that was hardly forgiving.

The more the brunet spoke, the more he noticed Levi stiffening, his expression as blank as possible. But what alarmed him, was the deathly stillness those grey-blue orbs had, while usually they were the only help Eren had to hope to understand his mate. He decided to censor some things… Levi didn’t have to know every single detail.

“And so I was caught by Reiner’s outburst by surprise, yeah, but Ymir came and Armin and Historia, too. With them there, we quickly took care of him and went straight to bed.” Eren shrugged, looking around the dim lighted room. Beyond the only window of the room, the sun was starting to raise, slowly clearing the darkness in Legion base.

Levi was still like a statue, but Eren could feel the prickling sensation of discomfort through their vital waves enhancer, signaling that the Captain was all but indifferent. The Omega Shifter gulped, feeling the calm before the tempest.

As Levi’s eyes turned to focus over his Shifter, Eren knew that the man could read through his lies… well, not really lies, he just did some editing.

“You know I’ll call you out on your shit.” Said the raven with a voice so low that Eren could barely hear it. But the Titan boy heard it well, so he nodded slowly.

“Why bother lying, then?” asked the Captain, interested in his nails. The motion served him like a distraction from the brunet’s figure, still slightly trembling and seemingly smaller in only his shorts and baggy button up. _His_ button up. Levi’s gut trembled in satisfaction at the thought of his Shifter wrapped in his own clothes, safe in his own bed and far from all those hungry beasts that were only waiting for one of them to distract just to sink their claws in what was _fucking his_.

And that idiot of a Shifter didn’t want to admit how close a call that had been! That drove Levi’s snarl out of his lips, startling Eren and making the raven throw any pretense of indifference and mature calmness to the wind. Levi’s lips curled. “Did he touch you? I know what Reiner is capable of. I saw how he becomes when out of control, when he enters a rut after a difficult mission. Or after Bert had been injured.” He snarled again, leaning towards Eren. “You don’t wanna be near that. And _you_ are telling me that last night you were prancing around in nothing but Mikasa’s underwear and almost dive head first into his fangs?! Jesus, Eren! How stupid can you be?!”

Eren was at a loss for words by the intensity of Levi’s reaction. Even when the Captain had been forced to bond with him, he wasn’t this upset. “I- I didn’t know that Shifters could be influenced in such a way! And don’t you dare underestimate me! I was able to put Reiner down-“

“Thanks to Ymir!”

“But I’m a _Rogue_! I can take care of myself, I always have and now don’t you dare come here from nowhere and think you can order me around, just because we have a stupid chip implanted into our neck that bonds us! Because if that’s the case, you’re just like all the other motherfuckers that came before you, Mr. Humanity’s Strongest Idiot!” Eren was panting by the time he ended his tirade, shooting a withering look to his mate.

Levi was about to reply when he stopped. “You’re a Rogue. A Rogue?!” He rolled his eyes. “Fun-fucking-tastic.” He exhaled, pinching his nose. “Now I understand a lot of things…” He opened a tired eye, looking at the Shifter: hot tempered, strong willed, unruly and stubborn as fuck. The little shit was a _Rogue Omega_ , the hardest Dynamic to deal with. The only Shifter that didn’t get along with his bonded mate in Legion.

Highly instable. Hanji said it from the beginning.

Levi had to tame a wild beast. He let his eyes take in the brunet’s aggressive stance, even if he was currently nestled inside Levi’s territory –in his bed, with his clothes on, his scent and even their vital waves resonated more than usual, after the night they shared near each other. Levi heaved a sigh, because he now knew for a fact that Eren wouldn’t accept him easily, it was simply in his nature to not low his head. What Eren said was true and Levi had to show the kid that he was worth his time and trust.

The tanned boy, eyes alight and jaw set straight, was interesting. Fascinating, even. With his determination he had already won over Levi’s Squad and up till now he’d been able to follow the Spec Op’s training. The boy had it in him for sure and besides, Levi had always liked a good challenge.

“Did he touch you?” He asked again, crossing his arms over his bare chest, barely containing his fury behind the usual indifferent mask.

Eren expected some sort of reprimand after the outburst, but again the raven took him by surprise with his question. He blinked owlishly and nodded. “But he was like… drunk, Armin and Ymir said he wasn’t in himself and they said that it’s already happened.“

Levi closed his eyes and released a long rush of air from his nose, calming himself a bit, before speaking again. “That’s true. When we found Reiner and Bert, in a situation very similar to yours, they were already bonded to each other. When you’ll see them fight for real, in a true mission and not in one of our reconstructed situations… you’ll understand. Those two possess a destructive capacity that cannot be compared to any other Titan. They alone could blow down a base as big as Legion. Hanji said that this monster strength they possess consumes them quickly and so the one that thought to create Shifters like you and your club of friends, came up with the conclusion that no human could have bonded neither Reiner nor Bert, choosing instead to bond the two.”

“Wow. What a shithead. That was a risk.” Commented Eren.

Levi nodded. “Yeah, we were lucky that the bond between two Shifters worked so well. The dorks are inseparable like the valves of a mussel. As that Shitty Glass Brain is drilling into every damned skull of Legion soldiers, that’s not a stable bond like the one we share, but they truly and deeply care for each other, after all they had passed.”

“That we _could_ share if you weren’t such a grumpy old hag.” Eren scrunched his nose, grinning.

“And you a little diaper wetter.” The raven clicked his tongue.

“Says you.” Eren laughed at the childish banter, the sound livening the Captain’s room that for the longest time was nothing more than a place where to wash and close his eyes against the world outside. Now the raven realized that this strange kid was slowly transforming his days, adding his own life to it. Now his room was no more a place of isolation, but a world of its own, rich with the brunet’s laughter and messy with the things that he never put away. It felt like having an ally, always looking at your back, in good and bad times… maybe that was what Petra was referring about when speaking of sharing her everyday life with Auruo.

Levi was distracted by Eren’s sigh. “Okay, I’ll tell you how it went… I guess Armin was right. But please, don’t shave my eyebrows!” and so the tanned boy started to describe Reiner’s fury, laughing about the stupidity of that all, now that he was safe into his mate’s den. He felt at ease, after he having screamed and given a piece of his mind to Levi –who had listened to him.

The Captain hadn’t shut him up, nor insulted him –well, he called him stupid but Eren could tell that he was only worried. It was the first time that they had a real conversation, even if during their sleepless nights Eren had already seen how good Levi could be to him. The raven had lost a lot of his time with him, not only to train the Shifter, but because he had seen what life had done to Eren.

And now, as he spoke, telling Levi the facts that led him to sleep in his bed and into his clothes –damn, Eren was so embarrassed that he wanted to leave for Tibet and never come back again, was sure that Levi would gladly help him burying the boy six feet under, because the more he went on with his story, the more fuming Levi became.

“So he _did_ touch you!” Now Levi understood what had stirred up Eren’s reaction that morning.

Eren rolled his eyes “I told you, _yes_. And it was gross as hell, but after what you told me, I believe it was mostly the vital waves enhancer fault.”

Levi inhaled through his nose, blue-grey eyes fixed in peacock ones. “I don’t give a shit about the chip. He touched something that wasn’t his.”

Eren bristled, but felt a rush of heat coming from his gut at the declaration. “Don’t start with this ‘mine’ and ‘yours’ thing, not you too! I’m not anyone’s!” the boy was sitting on his folded legs now, using his arms to balance himself on the soft mattress as he stretched toward Levi.

“ _Tch!_ You’re _my_ bonded Shifter and that’s final.” Countered the Captain, snarling and leaning towards the tanned boy. “I’ll be sure to remind it to Braun and Hoover, don’t worry.”

“Didn’t you listen to me before? When I said that I had already fixed everything by myself?! I don’t need you!”

“Ah!” scoffed Levi, grinning evilly. “I bet you did! I’d be disappointed, otherwise. I know your worth, kid.”

The heat crawling up Eren’s insides reached his face at the raven’s admission. Was that _praise_? Levi Ackerman had just praised him and Eren was blushing like an idiot! The warmth reached his neck and the chip, that started sending vibrations through the body, charging the air with tension. But tension for what? Eren couldn’t tell for his life.

As their stupid vital waves enhancers started to resonate again, aligning their feelings, the tanned guy realized that Levi was still speaking. “…And stop with all this shit that you’re fine alone. You’re _not_. Now you’re not alone anymore, why can’t you stamp it upon your forehead, you lazy-“

Levi was suddenly silenced by Eren throwing his weight against him. The boy was still kneeling on the mattress, but now his hands were curved around Levi’s neck, fingers slightly curling over the soft skin over the chip.

“Eren-” breathed Levi, didn’t push the younger man away, having his brain completely fogged by the waves washing from the chip.

“Stop.” Eren whispered against those thin lips that liked to berate the world and pour sarcasm on it, when in reality all he heard was blunt truth and honesty. “Stop insulting me and just say that you were worried about me.” The young Shifter was overwhelmed: Levi had showed him again that he cared, that he was willing to face all this bond thing together, that Eren didn’t need to run anymore. That was fine relying on others. At least, Eren was fine relying on _him_.

Eren had felt that way from the very moment he reopened his eyes in Legion. No one had ever said that to him.

A tongue-tied raven looked at the Titan latched onto him. “What?” Even if his voice trembled and he sounded slightly out of breath, Eren mentally high-fived himself for not stuttering. “You said that I had to be more honest with my needs…” he blushed harder. “That is…” he cleared his throat and involuntarily trailed his fingers over Levi’s short undercut. “More honest when I need you. Your help. With this stupid buzzing chip.”

During the small exchange Eren remained inches from Levi’s lips, speaking and brushing the other’s nose, soft puffs of air warming his mouth with every word. Levi was trembling for the effort of not pouncing on him, vibrating with the intensity of the _want_ that poured form the chip, crazy with the enchanting flickers of their vital waves.

Levi licked his lips and was sure that he would never forget Eren’s taste. “…Good boy. Stop being the little shit that you are and come to me when you feel instable.” He all but whispered, half lidded grey orbs reduced in ashes by Caribbean ones.

Eren nodded and curled his fingers on Levi’s cool skin again as he let himself be pushed on the mattress by a hungry Levi. Their foreheads in contact, the raven put one hand on the boy’s chest, over his fluttering heart, while the other went to tangle into wild chocolate locks, propping himself over the same elbow. Always looking each other in the eyes, like they could explore the other’s soul if they stared hard enough.

The boy purred in satisfaction as he dipped his head and opened his mouth to taste Levi’s scent over his tongue.

“Ahn!” he breathed happy, finally able to enjoy the closeness of his mate, nurtured with the contact so precious for the Shifter. Eren’s Omega trembled at the rush of life that pervaded his limbs, soft waves of calmness washing over his body thanks to the kiss they shared before, the brief exchange of body fluids enough to render the dreamless sleep of the night before a mere prelude to that bliss.

Eren slid his hands along hard muscles, tracing Levi’s back and stopping with open palms under his shoulder blades. He needed to be nearer, needed to hold onto the Captain to be grounded, happy to be pressed on the bed by his mate.

Levi shivered under Eren’s hot touch, not caring to think about anything else that wasn’t his tanned Shifter, how those lips had tasted like ambrosia, every sound that escaped them for his ears only. The raven growled possessive and pushed against the taught body underneath him, relishing in the contact and faintly asking himself how could he ever been able to resist such haven.

The hand that was resting over Eren’s torso trailed over the white button up, feeling up the boy and causing his breath to itch at every inch of covered skin that was explored.

Levi thought lazily that he could very well stay like this for another hour before his need for caffeine kicked in, but his dream was interrupted way too soon by the loudest bang he ever heard.

Someone had just busted open the door of the room.

Immediately Eren stiffened, turning his head towards the source of the sound. Before Levi could register what the source of the rackus was, still mesmerized like an idiot by those teal eyes big as saucers for the shock, an obnoxious voice reached him.

“WooOOOOOooooaaaahh!” Yeah, a sound like a dying whale that Levi knew all too fucking well. “Oh, for all the gods of Valhalla, please, tell me I’m not dreaming!” Hanji rubbed their eyes and gawked, standing in the doorway.

Levi snarled, deep and menacing, curling his lips over teeth and clenching instinctively his grip around Eren. Who was blushing like a tomato and hiding his face behind both hands.

“What. The fuck. Do you want. Hanji.” Said Levi between clenched teeth. If he was covered in fur, it’d be standing up in affront. How dared they trespass his territory? Interrupt the time with his mate –who was trying to make himself as small as possible, hiding into the crook of Levi’s neck.

“Aw, you called me by name!” Cooed Hanji, breaking a sweat: Levi rarely used their name, and only when the situation was serious. Legion Head Scientist had underestimated Eren and Levi bond to be that strong, since they still weren’t mated. Hanji didn’t think they would be so close, but seeing the scene before their eyes, they were wrong... And now they were intruding into Levi’s den. _No bueno_. “I’m sooo sorry to interrupt you, honey buns, but we need your presence into the labs… yesterday Eren missed his usual check and today I have the problematic duo already giving me the headache, because I can’t come to a final solution for Reiner to-“

Levi growled again, snapping his jaw at Hanji. “Don’t ever say that name in my room again! Or in front of my Omega!”

Hanji was vibrating with excitement at Levi’s reactions. “Aw, come on, that’s not possible, darling. And you know it. But I understand that you two have to…” They rotated their hands in an unspecific way. “So, please, don’t mind me and go on.” Hanji slipped a hand into their white coat to extract their phone, mumbling to themselves “Petra _must_ see this…!”

Levi growled again, stopping the maniac brunette before they could snap another incriminating photo. Eren peeped from Levi’s neck and realized that Hanji was very still, staring at them. From the force that Levi was holding him with, the raven was all but happy about the intrusion. The Captain was trying to murder Hanji on the spot with his death glare.

“Put that down, Shits for Brain, and no one will have to say hello to the vermin.”

The Titan Shifter cleared his throat. “O-okay, Hanji, we’ll be down at the labs in a few. Just… just give us the time to put on something.” He suddenly felt very conscious of his situation: sprawled under Levi –gods, that sounded so _right!_ , with his button up on and hiding his shorty shorts.

Eren groaned and tried to push Levi up, to get out from that embarrassing pose. But the older man didn’t move an inch, towering over the brunet more, hiding him from the prying eyes of the scientist.

“Leave, Four Eyes. Now.” said Levi.

Hanji huffed, annoyed. “You’re no fun, shorty, really. Fuck off, I only came here because you didn’t answer your phone –and now I know why, you frigid gingerbread man! But remember, I know the combination of your door and you’d better come to me this time! You don’t want Mike running after you all day until you grow up the balls and be the big guy you are, yes?” They smiled evilly and with a manic laugh stormed out, slamming the door once again. Not before taking a series of photos blindly behind them, without even looking at what they were framing.

Eren blinked owlishly, a mix of shocked and ashamed. Turned when finally Levi decided to stop squishing him to the bed and massaged his temples with two fingers.

Eren snickered, elbowing him good naturedly. “So… Mike had to drag you to your duties?”

“Shush, brat. You’d escape too, if you knew how it is to interact for hours with Erwin and that sack of glassed shitty ideas that already ruined my morning.” Groaned Levi.

Eren felt sympathy for the man. “Come on, let’s get functional and get you your coffee fix. Black as your soul, yes? Then we can go and pinch Reiner’s nipples until they come off.” He was still drunk by the kiss, his effects warming and lulling the Shifter in the stability only his mate could provide. Not to mention the possessiveness that poured from Levi’s actions and words, that totally fed the Omega’s needs.

“Mh, sounds good, kid.” Grinned the raven. “But remember me to destroy Hanji’s phone and possibly their head, too.”

\--------

As they made their way down to labs, Levi was nursing the biggest cup of coffee Eren ever saw in Legion. He supposed being a Captain came with some privileges. Being Captain Ackerman, well, it spoke volumes because every soldier in line who was waiting for coffee, let the small pissed man pass.

Eren was still smirking at the fear he saw into those soldiers’ eyes. And they didn’t even witness Levi’s anger when Hanji surprised them wrapped in bed! The Shifter’s cheeks dusted with pink at the memory, but he had decided to take the thing exactly as it was: nothing more than his mate giving him what he needed to keep the Titan cool and functioning. Yeah, he was doing his duty and Eren was kind enough to let the man do it, because if anyone else had approached him in the same way, ah!, they could go and ask Reiner what awaited them.

Thus the tanned boy tried to act nonchalant and forget about the sensation of those muscles under his fingers. At least, in this way, he was able to face the Captain without dying of embarrassment.

“Why did Hanji call us here? I could have come alone for my check…” Wondered Eren aloud.

“Don’t ask me.” Grumbled Levi, inserting the code of the second door, leading to the second lab, the blue lights of the corridor giving their figures an alien and sterile complex. “I only hope it’s important.”

Eren blinked when the doors opened, adjusting his sight to the dark lab. “I don’t think they would call you down here without a valid reason, knowing how many things you have to do.”

“Oh, you don’t know, brat. But once that crazy idiot sent me an emergency call because they wanted to show me their latest bloody experiment over some drug dealers…” Levi shook his head, sipping his coffee. “They like to try new ‘toys’” he air quoted “when interrogating some prisoners. I advise against assisting to one of Hanji’s interrogation if you don’t have an iron stomach.”

Eren grimaced, he really could do without real gore. During his time on the streets he had seen his fair share of pointless violence and even if he wasn’t scared per se, he preferred a good fist fight instead of Hanji’s medieval methods. Still, he wasn’t as naïve as to think that those kind of things didn’t exist, least they weren’t needed in places like Legion.

“I really hope to not see such things, thank you.” Grimaced Eren.

“I bet you don’t, kiddo. But until I’m in charge of you, I’ll try and save you from it. You’ll see enough as it is.”

Again a warm sensation washed over the Shifter, his Titan chip sending more messages that he had, in fact, made a good choice in starting to bond –really bond, his mate. Even if all that ad happened hours prior had been done unconsciously. Yeah, right, unconsciously.

“Uhm... it seems that they already begun.” Added Levi, idly scratching his neck. As the two walked inside Hanji’s lab, the one in which Eren awoke in, they could see that the chamber usually used to conduct their physical exams was occupied by two big tanks filled to the brim with a dark and slightly opalescent liquid, the consistence that of gelatin.

Totally immersed in the liquid were Bertholdt and Reiner, an oxygen mask protecting their noses and mouths. A lot of tubes and wires came out from the top of the tanks, connecting their bodies to beeping machines placed all around the room. Eren’s jaw clenched tight, remembering that the first time he opened his eyes, he was in this same room with as much things attached to himself. The two boys seemed to be sleeping, but the abandonment of their limbs, the lack of vitality in their expressions was the same that Eren had worn when he arrived, caused by the temporary lack of bond with a mate.

So that’s why they were immersed in the strange substance… the lack of synchrony in the vital waves rendered the two Shifters extremely instable and the time it took to restabilize the connection could take a heavy toll on them. This solution prevented the decay of their bodies.

“Come on, brat, let’s see what Hanji wants from us. Don’t let that get to you, those two are supposed to go through this periodically.” Explained Levi, nodding towards the unconscious Titans and throwing away his empty styrofoam cup.

“Is it painful?” asked Eren in a small voice, remembering the intense pain he felt even during the sleep before bonding Levi.

Levi slowed his pace, shrugging. “I don’t know. I trust Hanji to have taken all the right measures to assure those two the best care.” Eren hummed, agreeing. The raven spoke again. “See the wires that come from the neck? That register the waves of the Shifters, so that Hanji can analyze them and resynchronize Reiner‘s vital waves enhancer on Bert.” Eren followed with the sight the intricacy of the tubes indicated by Levi. “Because of your Shifters characteristic healing abilities, Reiner’s and Bert’s chips tend to lose the resonance between each other, even if they constantly refresh the bond –and when I say constantly, I intend _always_. But they heal and lose the connection that keep them sane, so Hanji resynchronize it for them.”

Eren caught the meaningful look that the Captain shot his way. “Refreshing the bond? You mean… like what we-“

“I mean more than that, brat.” Levi arched his thin brows, lips slightly curled upward at Eren’s wide eyes. He gestured the boy to follow and finally the two entered the room, to find Hanji and Moblit reading the results of Reiner and Bert’s examination to a pensive Erwin. Mike was sniffing around as always, his mellow looks masking the sharp senses that characterized the man. He was the first to turn his head towards the door, already knowing about the arrival of Levi and Eren.

“So. Fancy finding you here, Erwin. Mike.” Greeted the raven, crossing his arms over his chest and stopping before the Commander and the Head Scientist. Moblit was startled by the sudden appearance and exited the room, instructed by Hanji to other duties.

“Levi, good to see you, _finally_. I think it’s the first time you made me wait this long?” Asked the blonde Commander, searching for Mike with his pale blue eyes and grinning with him knowingly.

“Aw, here are my two precious babies!” Cooed Hanji, opening their arms to try and hug Levi. “I’m so sorry to have interrupted your-“

With a hand, Levi grabbed Hanji’s jaw, squishing their cheeks and preventing the spilling of other embarrassing details. “You didn’t interrupt _anything_ and if you try again to barge into my fucking quarters, I’m going to open you skull to see if inside there’s actually a brain or a drunk hamster dying on his rusty wheel.”

“Come on, kids, play nice.” Snickered Erwin. Mike was chuckling silently, Eren was shaking from laughter. “Levi, please, don’t damage Hanji’s brain more than what you’ve already done. We need them. Hanji, I told you many times to leave Levi alone and respect his spaces, especially now that Eren’s with him.”

Eren almost choke on his saliva. Mike patted him on the back, always grinning under his unfathomable mustache.

Levi groaned, but let go of Hanji. He rubbed the hand used to grab the scientist over his pants with a grimace. Hanji smirked, knowing that they succeeded in irking Levi’s OCD. “Well, since I can’t even kick Braun in the ass for putting his hands over my mate,” Levi gritted his teeth, looking at the big tank that contained the sleeping blonde Alpha ”I hope you have other reasons for requesting my presence here.”

Hanji beamed, nodding. “Well, since you and Eren are finally starting to build your bond, I thought it would be safer to let you be together as much as possible. In this first state the vicinity is really important so…” they shrugged.

Levi was confused, Hanji already told them this and they were doing almost everything together…save for taking shits and showers, because god…that was something that Levi really did not want to think about. For different reasons. So why was Hanji telling this again? Unless…

“Erwin, are we going on a mission?”

The Commander of Legion knitted his impressive brows and gave a single nod. “Yeah, we are. We have taken a new commission. It’ a simple thing, we just have to intercept a cargo that will be unloading at Tamatave port in a week.”

“Tamatave?” Eren repeated, nearing subconsciously to Levi.

“Madagascar.” Supplied Mike.

“Same tactic as usual?” Asked Levi, his voice deprived of any inflection. Only his lids were lowered in concentration.

Eren was slightly lost: he was excited, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. What would Legion expect from him in this kind of situation?

“Yeah, but we’ll be discussing it with the others in two hours. I need you to come with me to revise the last things. Hanji.” Erwin turned toward the scientist, his pale blue eyes were sharp, calculating. “Be sure that Braun and Hoover will be ready for this. Check Eren, too. He’s coming with us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please guys, read the comments below to have a taste of what could happen in the future :) the beautiful QueenTaiyomi gifted me with a delicious prompt, so...I ended up writing it!!! xD  
> SMUT DOWN BELOW!!!!


	7. Titan(ium) - part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean’s slit tawny eyes weighed Eren again “Listen, Jaeger-”  
> “No, you listen, pony boy. Stop thinking that I spent the last months since arriving in Legion fapping in my room! Jesus, if you’re so stupid that you can’t trust me, at least trust Captain Ackerman and the nightmarish training-“  
> Eren was interrupted by Marco, who grabbed both his and Jean’s arm and pulled them to the floor, screaming a “Lay down!” that soon was covered by the thunders of a shower of bullets.
> 
> \- HEAVILY EDITED on 11/02/15: the second part of this chapter has been revised guys. Not the main events, but I made a lot of little changes and added things after reading your feedbacks :) I hope you'll like this version more. Thank you to everyone who left a comment, it really helped!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys... I don't have excuses for this superlate update!! But at least this chapter is worth two in lenght... hope this'll be enough to be forgiven!!  
> On another note, I want to say a few things:  
> 1\. I'm sorry if any of you knows/live in Madagascar, I don't know anything and with this chapter I don't intend to insult anyone and anything. IT'S FICTION, completely invented by my sick brain. I'm sorry if I unintentionally said something insulting. Tell me and I'll remove it.  
> 2\. Many thanks to the beautiful [QueenTaiyomi](http://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenTaiyomi/pseuds/QueenTaiyomi) for the prompt in the hot scene, credits go to their headcanon in the comments after chapter 6 <3  
> Now stop with this obnoxious part and go on and read, my Darlings :*

“Levi.” Hanji’s soft voice came from behind him.

The raven haired man turned to look over them and felt all the tiredness and the stiffness hitting his poor abused neck. He grunted and scrunched his eyes, lifting a hand to massage his sore muscles.

“I told you not to sleep on that chair, you stubborn urchin.” Reprimanded the scientist again, entering the room. Levi shrugged and didn’t look them in the eyes. They stretched a hand, offering the Captain a steaming cup of tea. “Here, take it. I bet you didn’t eat anything since we came back.”

Levi hummed and took the cup in that strange way that always had the newbies at Legion whisper, gripping it by the rim with his fingers instead using the handle. He was about to put his lips on the cup but stopped. “…Tea?” he asked, arching a brow. He liked tea, but was more a coffee man.

“Yeah, tea, and you are to stay far from caffeine until I say so. If you drink one more coffee you’ll have a heart attack.” They snorted and placed the hands on their hips, looking around the sterile room. Then, with a softer tone, they added “You have to rest, Levi. You’re as tired and injured as all the others. Please, return to your room-“

“Hey abnormal glasses… we’ve known for what, fifteen years now?” asked suddenly Levi, sipping his tea and cringing at the lack of bitterness. Hanji had put a fuckton of sugar into the beverage.

Hanji blinked owlishly, confused “Yeah, more or less… why?”

“And I know that you superbly consider yourself an intelligent being…” he continued, amused by the smug scoff that his friend made. “So I’m wondering why you still try to make me change my mind.” Deadpanned the raven.

Hanji opened their mouth but closed it soon after, sighing. “Exactly because I’m your friend, idiot, and I’m responsible for your health, too. So I’ll repeat this because I know it grates your nerves: you need to rest!”

“What I need is to stay here.” Replied stubbornly Levi.

“You have to take a break, Levi, it’s been two weeks since the last time you took a good night sleep-“

“Do you think I could sleep Hanji? Even taking a shower had this… stupid-“ the Captain reached behind his neck to rub furiously at the skin over the vital waves enhancer “-chip sending a cascade of fucking jingle bells down my spine, and.. and I cannot leave him, Hanji.” He ended the sentence with a resigned shake of his head.

“I know you’re worried for Eren, but we’ve done anything we could for him.” Said Hanji trying to comfort him, gesturing towards the bed that occupied the room. “We treated his injuries even if they had already started to heal, we checked his parameters and his vital waves enhancer!”

“So why he’s still unconscious?!” said Levi through gritted teeth, gripping with his free hand the armrest of his chair.

Their voices had slowly increased during the discussion, but now the only sounds filling the white room were _beeps_ and _blips_ all over again. Levi swore he hated those fucking machines, attached like leeches to Eren just like the first time they met. Hated the silence of the infirmary room in which he had slept for the last three days. Hated the fact that the brat now laying on said bed wasn’t laughing or complaining about everything and anything.

Levi sighed for the umpteenth time and sagged in his chair.

Hanji walked beside him and put a hand over his shoulder. “I… really don’t know, Levi.” Their voice seemed to tremble at the end. “I’ve done everything possible to help him recover, and I know that all his parameters are fine… now it’s up to him.”

“Yeah, I know. ‘m sorry, glasses.” Murmured Levi. He looked tiredly at the brunet Shifter in his unnatural sleep: his skin was a sickly color, not the usual caramel gold. Under his eyes were heavy blueish shadows –Levi was quite sure he had matching ones, and on his cheeks there were the bloody signs of the strain Eren went through after their last mission.

It was the first time that his flawless skin showed such marks. They were like deep cuts, going from Eren’s lower eyelids to his ears and jaw, opening like bloody fans. It seemed like the muscles and tendons were exposed, leaving only raw flesh in place of smooth tanned skin. It was disturbing, but Levi had seen similar marks on Reiner and Annie as well, when they strived too much.

“But if everything’s fine…” Levi shrugged, not looking away from his Titan. “Then why he’s not…” the phrase was left incomplete.

Hanji tightened their grip on Levi’s shoulder and shook their head. The scientist didn’t press Levi for leaving Eren’s bedside, knowing that it was useless fight against his stubbornness and the strong pull of the chip. The Captain had a hard time believing that until two weeks before Eren was alive and walking around driving him crazy, almost excited to go on his first mission with Legion elite squads.

Erwin had thought about everything, assigning the teal-eyed brat a simple task, as far from danger as possible. But _of fucking course_ things never went smooth in Legion… Moreover, his brat had a penchant to call for trouble. He had read what Kirschtein had written in the report, calling Eren a “suicidal bastard”. Levi’s lips still curled upward thinking about that.

“How’s the rest of Eren’s team?” asked Levi.

Hanji’s usual cheerfulness returned. “They’re recovering. Some of them are better than others, but they all came back home. That’s very good news, I’m so relieved!”

Levi nodded, happy to at least know that Kirschtein and the others were coping. The two-toned haired soldier was deeply shaken and Levi could really relate to him, after all that happened. Before starting to live in the chair next to Eren’s hospital bed, he had made a brief visit to the other soldiers of 104th and saw how the Kirschtein boy was struggling with his new condition. Luckily his teammates had his back and even Mikasa and Annie were there to support him.

Tired blue-grey eyes fell on Eren again, knowing by heart all the lines of his still form. Levi was torn between pulling his hair in frustration and trying to wake him up screaming and yelling in his face until he moved. The tanned boy was indeed a suicidal bastard, had acted on instinct and disobeyed orders, ending up all beaten up and unconscious. Still, if he hadn’t reacted as quickly and recklessly as he had, now they would have more victims on the list over Erwin’s desk.

Levi was proud of Eren’s decision, of his courage, but _why in the seven hells the damned kid wouldn’t open his stupidly gorgeous eyes?!_ Why did Levi have to deal with guilt and sorrow? Why was the useless chip in his neck making it all the more difficult, tingling and quivering, urging the Captain to lay beside Eren and tuck him between his arms, crooning to him, keep him safe until he opened his eyes again.

But for the first time since they implanted the vital waves enhancer, Levi felt strangely alone. The chip didn’t send him the Shifter’s feelings, didn’t spark with Eren’s vital waves at all. Levi’s own waves crawled through their bond without finding the solid presence of Eren’s conscience that always responded to them. Levi’s vital waves felt like trapped in his own small being, not having the mate that answered the call. Mute, like the abandoned form steadily breathing in front of Levi.

TWO WEEKS AGO –

Levi came out of the bathroom toweling his wet hair and yawning loudly. Padded barefooted towards the bed of his room, where a still sulking Eren was giving him the silent treatment, cross-sitting on the mattress in his usual tight shorts and a baggie shirt he robbed from the raven’s closet.

“Are you really hugging my pillow, brat?”

“Fuck off.” Came the Shifter’s voice, muffled by the soft pillow.

Levi heaved a sigh throwing the towel into the damper and sitting on the edge of the bed. “Come on, I can’t believe you’re still angry about before.” He poked the tanned boy’s arm.

Peacock eyes turned to stare angrily at the Captain “Yes, I am. And for your information, you’re an asshole. No, don’t even try to say you’re sorry! I don’t believe you! Not after you and Reiner and Ymir went all out at each other telling in front of almost everyone what kind of things you do to your respective mates during their heat!” Eren was seriously pissed off, his mouth stretched in a tight line, cheeks and ears red like a tomato and shame resonating from the vital waves enhancer.

Levi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Well, they provoked me, saying that we are-“

“I don’t care, stop speaking! It seemed like it was a contest to measure who between you three useless Alphas has the longer dick! But listen here: you are all a big bunch of dicks! And you’re the fucking bigger!” Eren sank his head into the pillow.

“Wow, I’m touched.” Slurred Levi, a corner of his mouth forming a lopsided grin. “It’s the first time someone tell me I’m bigger than Reiner and Ymir. No, wait. They always say I’m the biggest when speaking of dicks-“

Eren looked at him ferociously, his hair a mess and eyes glinting with rage and embarrassment. “Shut up! I don’t wanna see you anymore! Go sleep in the bleach closet!” the brunet was painfully conscious that he was well acquainted with Levi the dick. _And_ the dick of Levi. _Ah! Thank you, life, laugh until you have teeth. Love, Eren fucking-pissed-Jeager._

“The bleach closet? Mmh, seems a good idea, you both are bad for my health but good to mop the floors. Even if you have the bad habit to kick in your sleep, I think I’ll risk a blue ball and stay here.” Replied Levi, pretending to consider the suggestion.

Since the first night they shared Levi’s bed, right after Eren had been harassed by Reiner, Mikasa had had an epiphany and had the mattress which Eren slept in removed from her brother’s quarters. So, now Levi and his Shifter brat shared his bed.

Eren’s kicking habit was indeed obnoxious, but the sight of those long legs in the morning, wrapped in messy sheets that made a stark contrast with the amber shade of his skin… Levi was pulled from his thoughts by the intensity of the emotions spilling from the chip, throwing him off balance. He really did hurt his Shifter. “Ehy, brat, come on…”

“No!” the Titan shifted on the bed, giving the raven his back, removing his shaped legs from his reach. Levi noted how the light pearl grey of the shorts complimented the caramel tone of that skin.

So Levi did what he was good at: abandoned every attempt at talking and acted. He wrapped his arms around Eren’s torso, pulling him towards him “I’m really sorry, I’ll never do this again to you.” He murmured against the shell of Eren’s ear. The brunet’s skin covered in goosebumps.

“You always say that but in the end you do as you want, you bastard…”

Levi hummed but noticed that Eren didn’t refuse his touch. The Captain started to mouth at his nape, the skin under the chocolate cascade of hair so warm and soft. “I was only boasting about my mate, brat.” When Levi traced a hot wet trail with his tongue on Eren’s neck, ending in the soft curve of the shoulder, the brunet melted against his mate.

“Y-you are a self-centered… egoistic, bossy… little ball of… shit.” Eren’s words came with more difficulty, as Levi rubbed his nose over every patch of nude skin he could find on his brunet’s shoulder. Eren felt him smirk against his skin and then teeth came out to _–oh dear god, please just bite and stop teasing!_

The Omega Shifter keened in protest at the raven’s ministrations: it wasn’t enough, for fuck’s sake!

Thanks to the strong waves delivered through their bond, Levi read immediately the brunet’s needs, pushing him gently against the mattress, over his stomach, the pillow blocked between his lithe form and the mattress.

“This better, you needy thing?” murmured Levi, draping himself over Eren’s body. Hands came to rest over the younger’s hips, thumbs massaging the tender flesh in circles, while the other fingers dipped under the elastic band of the shorts.

As Eren’s breath hitched in his throat with a strangled moan, Levi took advantage of him to nibble the soft spot behind his ear. His Shifter always bitched about it being too sensitive and making him emit the strangest sounds…

Exactly what Levi was looking for. And as always, his beautiful Omega never failed him, bucking his hips against the raven’s solid ones and emitting a purring sound that made the both of them blush with its intimacy.

“L-Levi, okay, s-stop now…”

“Nu-uh.” crooned the raven “I think I might have just started.” Lips always brushing over that luscious skin, the raven nuzzled his nose into the wild hair that smelled like pine and ocean wind.

Eren stretched under Levi’s weight not knowing if the wanted to flee or mold with the older man. The only result he achieved was to rub his round ass against Levi’s growing arousal, not at all restrained by the soft pants he used to sleep in.

“Ah!” the brunet half-screamed, half-moaned, arching his back and throwing his head back. Levi chose that moment to sink his teeth into the curve of flesh where the neck meets the shoulder, causing another flow of cussing from the boy’s mouth.

Despite the harsh words coming from Eren’s mouth, the chip didn’t lie and Levi clearly perceived the truth behind his Shifter’s defiance: expectant and coy, his Titan liked to play with him. But under the thick layers of lust and need, were the stubbornness and shyness that characterized Eren. His generosity and caring nature, little sparks that ignited their banters, the flicker of life that made the peacock eyed brat the perfect match for a man like Levi.

Levi’s bite caused Eren’s hardening dick to find some relief rubbing against the sheets, but it was nothing compared to the heat quickly raising from his rear: Levi had put his hands over his buttcheeks, fingers tight under the hem of the shorts, palming them and using that as foothold to start moving in honest against his Shifter.

“N-nh! Levi- stop it, I don’t…!” Eren tried again to speak, but all he could do was fist his hands into the sheets with more strength, to oppose the building thrusts coming from the Captain.

“You don’t _what_ , Eren?” tempted Levi, voice velvety and sultry. He raised one of his hands to the brunet’s throat, tracing with feather-like fingertips the contour of his Adam’s apple, feeling Eren swallow and then up until his chin. “ _Answer._ ” Levi all but breathed again in Eren’s ear and pulled Eren’s head back, toward him, so that the Shifter’s back arched beautifully under him.

Eren exhaled from his mouth, caught into Levi’s string grip. He didn’t like to submit, but sometimes he could use some manhandling… even more if the one manhandling him was his mate. Electrical jolts and spikes quacked rhythmically the bonded pair, leaving them aching and thirsty for each other, enhancing each sensation and revealing it to the partner. Like an old oiled machine, one’s passion ignited the other’s.

When he had Eren pliant and sweated underneath him, secure in his grasp, sure that what his Shifter wanted, he could give him… Levi felt complete.

…Almost. Something in his deepest told him that there was still something missing, but in the haze of the moment, with his Omega keening for him, the raven had to put aside the thought.

Finally Eren spoke again “Please, Levi.” He turned his head slightly, just to gaze with glassy eyes and wet lashes into his mate blue-grey ones.

Levi dropped his head again searching those beautiful lips but never touching them: he knew better than kiss Eren while the boy was upset with him. The gesture was too intimate to be done without thinking, Eren had been clear since the beginning and Levi respected that. Even if in that precise moment, the raven could have sold his legs for a kiss from those sweet, plump lips, shiny with saliva.

“You behave nice when you want something, don’t you, brat?” snickered Levi, gently rubbing under Eren’s chin. He slowed the thrusting against that wonderful ass, since he wasn’t so stable as before, but Levi’s hips never stopped dipping into the sinful crease Mikasa’s shorts allowed.

The Omega’s greedy hole had already started to dampen –not as abundantly as during a heat cycle, but enough to moisten the soft material of the short. Levi was sure that the front was in a worst situation, thanks to the friction provided by the sheets and the force he was pinning Eren with.

Another mewl from Eren and Levi had enough of the teasing game: he raised on his knees pulling the brunet with him, so that he was now on his four. Levi yanked down Eren’s shorts enough to expose his ass and disentangle his leaking cock from the waist band, leaving them around sweat covered thighs, as down as they would go. The raven noticed that the shorts were indeed wet, both on the front and the back. He smirked, satisfied.

“Come here.” He murmured, and Eren adjusted his position with a content sigh, _finally getting somewhere, thank you, fucking Ackerman devil! But tomorrow Eren would kick a foot down Levi’s throat for all this and then he would_ “–oh that’s it!” … he hadn’t said that out aloud, right?!

Levi had started to thrust against his bared skin with his naked cock, nudging the weeping puckered hole every time he moved. Levi snorted amused, and Eren knew that he had spoken aloud. Damn that man for washing away any reason he had left! And now the hand that was on his jaw went down, caressing his chest and briefly flicking one of the perked nipples that chafed against the baggie shirt.

It went down and down, until there was no more shirt and only heated caramel skin trembling on the verge of the precipice, until the calloused fingers reached the smooth inside of Eren’s thighs, tracing teasing lines but never truly touching him. “Oh, you sweet motherfucker, s-stop it- oh… _oh, Levi!_ ” Eren moaned and almost shouted the last words, when finally the raven reached the brunet’s neglected member, wrapping around it, squeezing just enough so that the boy’s hips jerked forward.

He was slowly but surely losing his mind. “Oh… oh…” every rocking movement drew breathed vowels out of Eren, accompanied by the thudding of the bed against the wall. With Levi pushing him down and emitting hot puffs of air over his neck, his hole and cock leaking profusely, the tanned boy didn’t know how much he could resist. He abandoned his head, drowning into the sensations rebounding from the chip and making him light headed. Like entering a stupid sauna when you’re already drunk.

Levi basked in the sight of Eren bent in front of him, mewling for him, needing him to be sated. The raven knew that not having a full intercourse was not enough to make his mate come –the boy was _demanding_ to say the least, but he wouldn’t want it any other way.

Eren’s red, puckered hole clenched every time Levi’s length rubbed it, greedy and needy. The sight was enough to work the raven up more, and he only wanted to plunder that round ass into the mattress until the only word his Shifter was able to scream was Levi’s name, but… they didn’t have the time to go all the way.

So the raven resolved to do the one other thing able to satiate his Omega: he bit his neck hard, right over the chip was implanted. Hard enough to leave a sign, but not to draw blood.

Eren quacked under Levi, the wave of pleasure running over him to inflame his insides, burning through the connection and reaching Levi, enhancing his own climax. They both came, Omega whining high and staining the bed sheets and the Captain draping white ribbons over the other’s tanned back.

Eren’s strength was completely drained from his limbs by Levi’s biting his nape, made him collapse on the mattress with his mate covering him.

Labored breathing filled the otherwise silent room, the Shifter and his mate didn’t move a finger, recuperating their own balance: the vital waves enhancers were still resonating too much, unifying them in a jumble of feelings and emotions, a sole being.

Levi turned his head to look at Eren, whose afterglow expression was priceless. A small drop of sweat trailed along strong jaw and down his slender neck, with eyes so bright that could incinerate Levi with their intensity. He was still panting with his mouth slightly open and when the brunet passed the point of the tongue over his own lips, the raven haired man trembled. Under the heavy sensations the were exchanging through the bond.

The reverberation was too strong and suddenly Levi felt so hot he couldn’t stay still anymore. With a quick intake of air through his mouth, the Captain woke up with a strangled sound and found himself sitting in his bed, sweating and tangled between a mess of sheets and tanned limbs.

He blinked a couple of times and turned his head, confused. Brought a hand to massage his neck, since the stupid chip was still sending angry jolts down his spine and when blue-grey eyes focused on his mate he understood why.

It was true that Mikasa had the mattress Eren used as bed removed, forcing the two to sleep together –and Levi would never admit to a living soul that he had never slept better in his life, but the Titan was surely a lively sleeper! Eren had the bad habit of rolling in sleep restlessly until he effectively attached himself koala-style to Levi. One morning the Captain had woken up being the small spoon. He was so embarrassed and pissed that kicked the brunet onto the floor.

But what was happening now outdid anything he could have imagined. Eren was sprawled on the mattress next to him, his luscious caramel skin glistening with perspiration, hands gripping the sheets as his hips moved languidly against the bed, pulling sinfully the tight fabric of his shorts. The Shifter had the face half buried in the pillows, but Levi could hear his soft moans.

The kid was humping Levi’s bed. For an instant the Captain was tempted to laugh and wake him up to torment him for-fucking-ever.

The raven was already reaching to touch Eren when a louder moan escaped from the brunet’s lips, a sound that made Levi’s skin crinkle with goosebumps.

“…evi..” Breathy spoken, voice raspy from the night disuse, pink full lips open around a word that seemed suspiciously like his name. Levi stopped and remembered the x-rated dream he just had, finding a startling similarity with the actual situation. Well, not really, because he was not bumping like a rabbit against that inviting round ass.

And now that he noticed –not that he could have actually avoided it for fuck’s sake!, other than the irresistible rhythm that the brunet’s hips were canting, the back of Eren’s shorts was damp, just like in his dream.

Levi felt his heart jumping in his throat, heart rate accelerating and pumped up by the chip that, as always, transmitted Eren’s feelings to Levi, igniting each other’s sensations. When something hot run down his nose, Levi reached to his nostrils instinctively.

His fingers were stained in red. He had a fucking nosebleed from his Shifter dry humping the sheets. He felt heat creeping up his face and suddenly wanted to tie a heavy stone around Eren’s ankle, let him sink into the Ocean and then go die in the desert himself. There, no witness alive, no Hanji knowing what happened, no Erwin knowing glances, everyone happy.

Perfect plan. He only had to stand up from that bed of confusing thoughts and –Levi stopped again and cringed. He had already a hard time cutting out Eren’s wanton moans that incited his sensible mind in recalling the dream, had his hands occupied dealing with the nosebleed but this…

“This is fucking incredible! Shit!” he spat, cringing at the wetness he felt between his legs. Levi turned his head towards the bed with a look that could freeze all Hell and realized that Eren had returned to sleep peacefully. They had similar dreams, probably induced by the vital waves enhancer, but now that Levi had steamed off in every goddamn embarrassing way, it seemed that the idiot Shifter could return to his peaceful slumber.

“Stupid… useless… piece of meat!” whispered angrily Levi “Making me… fuck! Into my pants…” he fought the disgust at the dampness in his sweatpants and lifted a leg over the bed, planting his foot against Eren’s side. “…not since I was thirteen… you horny walking trouble… and change the sheets!” the last words were shouted and associated to a hard kick that sent the Shifter roll down the bed, falling with a loud _thump_ in a tangle of sheets on the hard floor.

“OUCH!” whined Eren, blinking blearily towards a very angry Levi stomping towards their small bathroom and slamming the door behind his back. “What the fuck, you schizophrenic Cartman?!”

Eren was very awake, now, and when he heard a muffled “Change the bedding, you perverted bastard!” yelled behind the bathroom door, the Shifter’s brow furrowed. “What the hell…” he groaned again, but when he tried to stand, he could feel the moisture dripping from his nether regions. The brunet’s breath caught in his throat, because he understood what had happened.

In a heartbeat he recalled what he was dreaming… the warmth, the comforting familiarity, the closeness… and the mind blowing sensations that had reverberated between his and Levi’s chip. Eren groaned aloud. His mate had felt everything! Levi knew what he was dreaming and of course he saw the state which his clothes were in…damn.

Bert had warned him! The tall Shifter had said that eventually Eren would not be able to control the chip by himself anymore… he couldn’t control the needs it would spike in him to relieve the heat coming from the nanomachines. And that was what had happened: Eren’s subconscious was eloquently telling him that he needed his mate to take care of him.

The young Shifter heard the shower in the bathroom and Levi’s muffled grumbling. Great, another day of embarrassment and awkwardness with the Captain. Eren stood and began to undo the bed. Fortunately, today they had the meeting with Commander Smith and the others to arrange the last things about the mission. The first mission that Eren was allowed to participate in. He was exited.

*

“If I knew you would be in my squad, I’d have told the Captain to leave me at the base!”

“Eh, you jealous newbie?” Jean scoffed with a smug grin, finishing to check Marco’s suit.

“Am not, you fancy clogs!” hissed Eren.

“Please, guys…” Marco was trying to keep the two calm, with scarce success.

“Only because you’re Captain Ackerman’s baby it doesn’t mean you’re ready to go on a mission.” Said Jean with an edge in his voice. He clapped Marco’s shoulder, signaling that he ended to check his diving suit. He looked at Eren with his tawny eyes. “And you’re assigned to _my_ squad now, so behave and we’ll be back in no time. You’re going to slow us down as it is, so please, _please_ , don’t fuck this up. We’re not playing!”

Eren grunted, honestly angered now. He walked the distance between him and Jean and looked up – the horseshit was taller than him by a few inches. “Shut up. I know, you ass! Keep neighing with that mouth of yours and we’ll see if it can accommodate my boot-“

“Shut. The fuck. Up. All of you.”

Jean and Eren froze, while Marco whined. The three young men straightened their backs, seeing Levi’s icy stare directed at them. He was organizing the departure of every squad the Commander had put unto the mission with them.

They had reached Tamatave –or Toamasina, as Armin had called it, an hour ago hidden in a cargo ship belonging to Legion. As the night came, they were divided in smaller groups, anyone with a different task and left the bigger ship to be embarked on small rubber dinghies. The little boats would bring them as near the shore as possible, but the reef that rounded Toamasina port was a barrier they had to overcome by swimming. Thus, the necessity of a diving suit.

Back at Legion the Commander had explained they were about to intercept a shipment of Titan mechanical parts, such as engineered limbs and vital waves enhancer that had been previously stolen to military facilities scattered around the world. Hanji had said that some greedy idiot would even sell them, thus feeding the black market. Obviously a force like Legion didn’t intervene in this sort of things daily, but the intel had said that this cargo was somewhat special and Erwin thought that a lot of things reminded him about the one time they found Eren hidden in a cargo similar to this one.

If there was a possibility that another Titan Shifter could be found, the Commander wanted to be sure that he ended in the best hands as quickly as possible (read: doctor Hanji Zoe) so he consented some of his men to intervene. Even if the cargo wasn’t as important as the one Eren’s had been, they were all paid handsomely, so Legion would win in any case.

Commander Smith didn’t know who was behind such trading, but often regular smugglers were paid to do the worst job and running the risk of being caught, so that the real mind behind the illicit traffic could remain out of reach. Even interrogating some of the men they had captured revealed to be useless, since they didn’t know anything about who had engaged them: they simply didn’t care, too desperate to worry about anything else that wasn’t money.

And so Eren had been assigned to Jean and Marco’s squad. The Commander told him that they had the most important job of all, since they had to recover and secure the smuggling goods, but the brunet knew that Smith and the Captain had put him as far as they could from the main danger.

The ‘client’ that asked Legion to intervene had passed the main information, but Commander Smith could only begin the operation when Armin and Historia’s more trusty contacts on the island had informed them that the group of smugglers they were keeping an eye on was hiding the precious load of Titan robotics ina storehouse in the old part of the port. It was decided to intercept the cargo and take it into custody to be analyzed hoping it could be of some help to trace where it came from.

And here they were now, waiting Levi’s okay to ship to the island on a small rubber dinghy. That is, if Levi didn’t chew their head off for squabbling like a bunch of preschoolers.

“Jaeger, stop complaining and listen to whatever Kirschtein say. From now on, he’s your direct superior and the responsible of your squad. If he says jump, you ask how high. If he says run, you put fucking winds to your feet and you flee. Is that clear, brat?” the Captain’s slit eyes were drilling a hole into Eren’s and the boy could only grumble a “Crystal clear, Captain” back.

“I supposed so.” Said the raven and then he turned to the two-toned haired guy. “And you, stable boy, respect your comrades. I personally trained this klutz and if you disrespect him, you disrespect _me_. Are you doubting my training abilities?” he arched his thin eyebrows, challenging Jean to reply.

“No, sir!” answered Jean, snapping a sharp salute and bringing his right fist over the heart.

“Good.” Levi nodded, then looked at Marco, that was alternating a dubious stare between his two comrades. “And you, freckles… god may help you, I know you’ll need it!” Levi sighed “You have my permission to knock them out if any of them misbehave. Just leave their corpse on the ground and someone will go back to pick them up.” He waved and returned to his previous location near the hatchback of the ship.

“Next are you guys. You ready?” asked Levi. The Captain looked at his wrist watch. “Confirm your position in thirty.”

“Roger.” Replied Jean, who had apparently switched in full-mission-mode. Marco nodded and placed himself behind Eren, controlled his wrist watch and pushed some buttons on it to synchronize their time with the Captain’s.

Marco fiddled with the small earphone he was provided “Highflyer to Blondies do you read me?”

Eren grinned, remembering that Ymir and Connie had wanted to change Jean’s squad name in _Eclipse:_ the Alpha Shifter laughed at the infinite possibilities opening, such as glittering horses under the sun, or blood sucking horses, neighing vampires and, again, vampires with clogs. Commander Smith had to throw out from the conference room both Ymir and Connie, followed by Hanji too, who couldn’t stop cackling. So they sadly remained Highflyer.

From Marco’s auricular came Armin’s distorted voice “We read you, Highflyer. Yankee’s waiting for you at the designated point.” The freckled boy gave a thumb up to Levi for the radio-check and the raven nodded.

Jean crouched and began to climb down the rope ladder that would bring him on the rubber dinghy awaiting for them in the waters below. Levi looked at Eren one last time, concentrating over the chip and trying to read the vital waves coming from the Shifter as well as his eyes. Peacock orbs were hard and focused, the waves coming from the Titan tense with excitement and small traces of fear.

Levi’s hand darted out before the tanned boy could leave “Remain focused, follow your orders, listen to Kirschtein and Bodt and everything’ll end before you know it. I won’t be able to listen to you, but you’re always in contact with the HQ. They’ll immediately warn us if something doesn’t go as established, but I’ll know immediately.” Eren seemed surprised by this last warning, but nodded nonetheless. Before he could crouch and follow Jean into the night, blue-grey orbs flashed with worry and the Shifter felt the apprehension tingling through their bond.

He couldn’t screw up, this was not a game, he finally understood it. With a deep breath and a last nod, Eren stepped out the ship. Levi hesitantly released him.

He could die tonight, one little slip and good bye to this valley of sorrow. Once again, he thought about the life he left behind, where events had been pulling and pushing him around for as long as he could remember and how resigned he felt to be at their mercy.

Of course he didn’t want to risk his life for something he still didn’t fully comprehend, but he loathed the idea that someone could end up like him by the hands of those smugglers. Now he could do something to prevent that, he could have a say in his life: Commander Smith had said that after this mission they could decide together if he was able to work on the field or going to be a support such as Ymir, that usually stayed behind the lines to defend Legion HQ when the others were far away. Of course, that was because her mate remained there, too.

Levi would always be fighting on the field and that could be difficult to accept at the beginning if he really chose to stay behind, but Ymir had the privilege to choose, and so would Eren.

But as the young Shifter rode on the rubber dinghy over the quiet waters around Toamasina, he felt alive and master of his own life. Any change in his life from now on would start from him. It would be his decision. Tonight, he was confident in the months that Levi had spent training him. And with Armin and Historia guiding them from Legion HQ, they had the situation under control.

Of course anything could go wrong –Levi always repeated him that even the most accurate and detailed plan could fail, but a soldier’s worth was to face the adversities with cool blood and trust his comrades and training. With time, experience will come.

When the man driving the boat signaled them, the three young men put on flippers on their feet and sunk silently into dark waters. Eren had seen the sea at night, even bathed in it, but this was something else. He couldn’t see a thing, the velvet liquid swallowed sounds and lights. They chose a night with no moon, so that they couldn’t be seen from the port.

Jean looked at his wrist watch and lightened its screen, keeping it underwater. It brightened the water around the small screen with a blue-greenish spectral light. “That direction.” He said “Swim slow and don’t make too much noise.” Even if it was obvious, Marco and Eren agreed and did as told – the brunet rolled his eyes, though, mumbling a “Pompous pony.” that was quickly gobbled up by the backwash.

They had to find the right spot to pass the reef, but with the right coordinates they were able to touch the shore just when Marco warned that it was time to check with the base. They stopped between a group of moored ships, hiding their presence thanks to their keels and the wooden pier emerging from the sea they were anchored to. Marco tapped on the auricular with his finger “Highflyer to Blondies, we’re here.”

A third voice crackled from the device “Right on time, Highflyer. Yankee to Blondies, we see them.”

“Thank you, Yankee. Follow the directions from here. Check again once you reach your starting point.” Replied Historia.

“Wilco.” Said the same voice and a few seconds later, a little farther along the shore, Eren saw a small blue light flickering. He rubbed his eyes, maybe he was seeing things.

But Jean bumped him in the arm “There. Let’s go.” That was the signal they were waiting for. So Eren and Marco followed their leader, being sure to keep hidden from the light of the port and stopping every time they heard the drunk voices of some sailor singing in the distance.

They swam slowly and finally reached the point where the blue light came from. Here, they found themselves under the wooden pylons of one of the smaller footboards that brought to the moored ships. Since they had water at their ankles, the three soldiers had to keep the pace slow. Eren huffed in frustration just at the same moment of Jean. Marco repressed a laugh under his breath.

“It was time, guys!” came a whisper from the dark. Eren squinted end beside one of the thicker pylons, half submerged in the waters, was crouched Connie. His dark complexion and small figure allowed him almost a perfect camouflage, only his eyes sparkled with the small light filtering through the wooden boards over their head.

“Ehy, man.” Greeted Jean in a whisper. “Where’s the last part of your squad, Yankee?”

Connie invited the three to follow him. “Keeping watch.” Grinned the bald boy. Walking slowly and swiftly, Jean’s squad was brought along the thin tongue of shore and through the maze of containers crowding the port. It was late night, but the place was lightened by high white lamps, so the four guys had to crawl and hide in every nook they found to advance. Luckily, the guards patrolling the area were too lazy to really look into the darkest corners and realize some people were sneaking just under their nose, but security cameras were placed here and there and Connie knew perfectly where they were placed, thus choosing the best path.

“Up there, come on.” Whispered Connie and gestured a small metal ladder that took them over the roof of one of the biggest stores that defined the perimeter of the area. The roof seemed empty, save for a pile of unused iron plates that were messily gathered in a corner. Connie advanced in that direction, keeping his waist bent to lessen the possibilities to be seen from below. Eren squinted and there, hidden between those same iron sheets that seemed nothing more than forgotten rubbish, was Sasha, holding a Barrett M99, her high precision military rifle.

She had her eyes locked on the street below and was munching an energy bar. “Welcome, boys. Lay low.” She made a peace sign with the hand holding the snack. “Con, check with the Blondies: here’s all calm.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m doing it.” Drawled Connie and proceeded to inform the HQ of their new position while Jean, Eren and Marco took off their diving suit, remaining in their total black uniform. They were armed with guns and Eren had his knife with him – a six inches razor-sharp stainless blade with powerful sawback teeth. Levi had snorted and mocked him, calling him a ‘friggin kitsch snob’. _Tsk, Eren was fucking classy, please_.

He secured the blade on the back of his belt, just as the Captain used to do, letting his fingers slide on the smooth scabbard. He felt a pleasant tingle coming from the chip and warming him after all that time spent into the water. Luckily the weather was still warm, but insufferably humid: it kept Eren’s too long hair glued to his nape, so the boy had tied the longer locks back in a loose bun.

“Captain Ackerman cleared his position. They’re ready.” Said suddenly Marco.

Connie nodded, a hand over his ear. “The Blondies are giving the clear, too. Queen Bee is ready to intercept the cargo for thee exchange.”

“We’re off, then.” Said Jean and nodded toward the ladder they had come from. Marco and Eren followed suit, the freckled guy freed the gun in his shoulder hostler while the Shifter dug into the internal pocket of his pant to extract a small set to pick locks.

“We’ve got your round asses, pretty boys, fear not!” Sasha waved her goodbye, never leaving her position.

“Good luck.” Said Connie and kneeled near Sasha, readying his own sniper rifle in few neat motions. Eren had seen a lot during their drills, but he was surprised to see the real deal: those two morons were the damn best snipers in 104th.

As Eren’s feet touched the ground again, he heard the beginning of the commotion on the front of the storehouse. He felt the warning prickling warmth spreading from his nape, gliding down his throat and spine, pervading his limbs and rendering every movement more neat, his pace quieter and his senses sharper. A vice grip around his stomach told him that his mate was on the move, too, small and deathly like a snake.

Levi and his squad were to be the decoy for the operation. They would attack directly the smugglers’ group an try to keep their attention away from the cargo, leaving the back of the storehouse less watched for Jean’s team to recover the goods. When Jean’s squad had secured the cargo, Levi could begin to play seriously and stop acting as bait. The peacock eyed Shifter shook any worry he had for his bonded human and his comrades, focusing on his task.

“This one.” Murmured Marco, pointing at one of the old warehouse crowding the port, always keeping an eye out for any unwanted presence at their back. Eren nodded and kneeled in front of the service door of the designated storehouse, making quick work of the lock as he had been taught.

“Highflyer here. Blondies, we clear to enter?” murmured Marco, a whisper barely audible. He nodded when the affirmative reply came from the auricular, saying that Armin had put the alarm of the storehouse off.

Jean’s gloved hand grabbed the doorknob and pushed slowly. The door squeaked slightly and the two-toned haired guy opened it leaving Marco to cover for any surprise it may await for them. Once assured the way was clear, they entered the storehouse. Dusty air filled Eren’s lungs as he closed the door behind them and sneaked with the other boys into the dimly illuminated corridors filled with packs and forgotten cartons. The brunet put away his pick locks kit and loosened the secure of his knife, right hand open behind his back and ready to grab the hilt of the concealed blade.

As Historia had explained, the ware they were looking for had to be situated on the back of the storehouse, since they knew the smugglers would try to send it away by loading it on a ship. So, the way Eren and his comrades had come from was the nearest to the sea side of the port. There were safety lights illuminating the floor of the corridors with pale lights, that allowed only a narrow range of sight.

Jean made a motion with his hand and moved, followed by the other two guys. They had the planimetry of the building, but didn’t know where the cargo was exactly, so all the young soldiers could do was advance tentatively. More than once the three guys had to stop and held their breath to catch any sound around them, Marco always updating them with what he heard from HQ. Once they had to cross an open passage and luckily the man guarding that very spot was asleep, drunk, if Jean’s expression was anything to go by when he passed the fat man sprawled on a wooden chair.

They silently left behind the passed out bastard and went on exploring the corridors and the many things that were stored in high shelves. Suddenly, Jean held up a hand, stopping their motions. They heard voices coming from the near corridor. Jean looked at Marco for confirmation, the earpiece crackled with a muffled sound and the freckled boy raised two fingers: two men patrolling the back of the storehouse.

“-think it’s happening?” asked one of them.

“Hell if I know... heard some commotion outside and Fred and the others went to have a look.” Replied another. “Could be the usual idiots loitering around the port to stole and break something.”

“Yeah…” drawled his companion, voice clearer and clearer by the seconds “Youngsters looking for trouble.”

“They’ll find a bad surprise, the boss was very clear: we have to keep the things quiet and neat. They’re coming for the cargo tonight, we have to be ready.”

Jean nodded and stepped forward but Eren, that had already a difficult time staying put with all his blood boiling from Levi’s waves coming from the chip, was quicker. He matched his pace with Marco, who was nearer the corner the two men were about to come from. The two brunettes crouched to the ground, taking advantage of the shadows, their backs pushed against the high shelves of each side of the isle they were in.

Jean stayed put, gun ready and a shit eating grin to welcome the two men that rounded the corner.

“Hey, ugly. Say cheese!” he whispered.

“What?!” shouted one. His companion didn’t say a word, raising the gun he was holding and pointing it at the two-toned haired soldier.

Never noticed, Marco and Eren covered in few steps the distance, snaked behind the two men without giving them the chance to understand what was happening. Eren latched an arm around the neck of the man who spoke, the other hand going over his mouth to prevent any sound from escaping.

“Shush, it will be over in a minute.” The Shifter was struggling to keep the man still, but Mike had taught him that immobilizing technique and if the brunet could make it work over that giant of a man, he was sure he could be able to restrain this bastard. The two patrols were as tall as the two brunettes that assaulted them, bulkier with fat and beer belly, not even closer to the strong and trained built of Erwin’s blonde Titan. Eren felt strength surge in him, so he gripped tighter around the writhing man, effectively cutting all air and blood from reaching his prey’s lungs and brain. In seconds, the two smugglers were unconscious, but the chip was still transmitting some of Levi’s frenzy to the Shifter. He grimaced looking at his deed, thinking that his Captain would have worked quicker and less messily.

He raised his eyes to the silence of the isle again, finding that Marco had already taken care of his own opponent, successfully disarming and knocking him out. Thee freckled boy gave a sharp nod and they swiftly disposed of the unconscious men, tying their wrists and ankles with cable ties –they had a bunch stored into their pockets, since those cables were small but very resistant. Their mouths were filled with pieces of their own clothes, cut off by Eren’s blade, just for precaution.

Once the Legion boys were free to move again, Jean threw an icy stare to Eren. “You were supposed to not do anything stupid, asshole!”

“What?!” Eren’s temper flared immediately: until now he had obeyed and followed every direction. For once he did something good, something he was starting to take pride in, that had protected his teammates and now this stupid Mini Pony was starting to complain! ”Excuse you! I’m _trained_ for this, if you haven’t noticed!” hissed Eren back.

“Guys, stop for a moment and focus!” Marco gave a slap on both of their arms. “Armin says we have a group of at least four in front of us.”

Jean’s slit tawny eyes weighed Eren again “Listen, Jaeger-”

“No, _you_ listen, pony boy. Stop thinking that I spent the last months since arriving in Legion fapping in my room! Jesus, if you’re so stupid that you can’t trust me, at least trust Captain Ackerman and the nightmarish training-“

Eren was interrupted by Marco, who grabbed both his and Jean’s arm and pulled them to the floor, screaming a “Lay down!” that soon was covered by the thunders of a shower of bullets.

*

“ _Queen Bee to Blondies, do you hear me?_ ” Mikasa’s voice came cracking from the radio. Historia connected her to the main speaker, so that all the people gathered into the commanding room could hear her.

“We have you, Queen Bee, speak.” The blonde girl looked at one of the numerous screens illuminated before her and Armin. Some of them were totally black with greenish series of letters and numbers slowly sliding on it, others had maps and coordinates, but the one that the girl was looking at was a satellite image of Tamatave port, with small colored pointers moving.

“ _We are in position and we heard they began the operation on the front of the storehouse, but the coast is all clear. Not a ship moving. Do you confirm the established hour for the exchange?_ ”

As Historia zoomed her satellite image trying to find her comrades, the profile of the port became clearer and the Commander’s voice replied at her back.

“We confirm it.” The man was standing with his back straight and face concentrated, Mike looming closely near him. Ymir straightened from the chair she was slumped in, her brows furrowed as she walked near Historia, following with her chocolate eyes the movements on the screen.

Historia reported to Mikasa and the ravenette spoke again “ _That’s strange. Usually the port is bristling with life at this hour, sailors preparing the ships to take the sea… but we don’t see a soul._ ”

Erwin gave a flick with his wrist and Historia translated “Queen Bee, maintain the position for now. We’ll contact the Spec OP squad and update you asap.”

“ _Roger that._ ”

“Commander.” Armin called Erwin’s attention. “We have problems with the recovery squad. It seems that inside the storehouse-“

“ _Spec OP squad to Blondies!_ ” trilled Petra’s voice from Armin’s earpiece. The boy quickly passed her on the speaker and Erwin walked near the operating stand where Historia and Armin were actually located.

“Speak, Spec OP squad, what’s happening?” asked Armin, while Erwin studied attentively the screens in front of him. Another sign with his hand and Historia switched one of the screen to the night vision provided from the satellite: blurred renditions of the fighting soldiers based on their body warmth moved in little groups located around the storehouse.

Mikasa and Annie, with Reiner and Bert were on the back watching the shore. Connie and Sasha were still on the roof and Jean’s squad into the warehouse. Both team were engaged in fights, surrounded by small light spots. Erwin could see that Levi’s squad was up against an unexpected number of men.

“ _We started the operation at eleven-zero-zero just as established, but we’re finding more resistance than initially anticipated. We cannot keep the damage under control. We can go on and waste ammo on these men or we have to knock down every one of them. The Captain requires new orders._ ” Petra panted. Erwin looked at the little clock in a corner of the screen and saw that Levi’s squad had been keeping the men occupied for more than an hour. The longer they acted as decoys, the higher the risk was. They had to wrap this as fast as possible.

Mike pointed a luminous spot on the screen to Historia and the girl connected another line “Blondies to Yankees, what’s your situation?”

“ _Here’s Yankee, and we’re in deep shit!”_ replied Sasha, a slight strain in her voice. _“I’m still in position and I’m trying to cover the Spec OP backs, but it’s like these guys knew we were here and are actually keeping out from my range. Three of them have just found us and Con is taking care of them right now._ ”

Historia’s eyes widened as she reported the news to her commanding officials. Mike snorted from his nose, while he crossed his strong arms in front of him. Ymir was at Historia’s side in an instant, cussing under her breath. She stayed back with Mike to watch out for the base, since that had to be only a recovery mission and they didn’t think it could go wrong… well, something was bound to not go after the plans, but this situation was quickly turning shit.

Levi’s squad was only meant to be the decoy and distract the main unit of guards, while Mikasa guided the other three Shifters to intercept the ship that had to retrieve the cargo. The two stronger squads were supposed to intercept the bigger part of the smugglers’ group, leaving inside the warehouse only a few guards.

“Arlert, what about Highflyer?” asked Erwin and his voice had taken the detached tone the man used when he was already thinking ten step ahead. “They only had to knock out the guards and secure the merchandise.”

“They’re not responding, Commander.” Answered Armin, trying to contact Marco for the umpteenth time and praying that Eren and Jean were still in one piece. “But I can see that there’s quite the commotion inside, too, Sir. Look.” Armin pointed at the warehouse in which his three friends were and another quite big group of light spots was crowding the center of the building. “They’re engaged, but I don’t know what the situation is.” The blond guy tried to digit a fast sequence on the computer, but from his intent expression, he didn’t get the results he hoped. He kept trying.

Erwin draw a deep breath and started to give his orders, while Armin and Historia kept his pace, connecting and disconnecting to the various squads to pass the new directives. “Spec OP squad, listen very well. We’ve been deceived. Suspend the operation. We’re changing our game.”

“ _Yes, Sir!_ ”

*

Petra raised an opened hand over her head and then closed it into a fist. Levi recognized the sign for retreat and stopped firing, crouching behind some garbage can. He was panting, the chip implanted in his neck was frying, sending his senses in hyper drive and not able to care about the gross vicinity with the trash.

“What the fuck did Commander toupee say?” grunted the raven, wiping his brow with the back of a black gloved hand.

As Auruo and Gunther kept at bay the men still firing at them, sometimes shooting back, Petra explained the orders. “We’ve been compromised. Apparently Mikasa’s squad is being relocated too, because there was no ship in sight for the supposed exchange.”

“Shit!” cussed Erd, bringing the hand that wasn’t holding his gun over his eyes. “So we leave everything like this? Hours of preparation all go to waste?” he asked, angry and incredulous.

Initially Levi and his squad had observed the movements of the men guarding the storehouse, to know what kind of weapons they disposed of and how many of them there were. Soon they understood that a lot of mercenaries had been hired to guard the place and that could have only meant two things: the cargo was extremely important, or it was a shitty trap.

The raven haired Captain had hoped in the first option. Hoped that Erwin and his blondie fairies were right and that they may find another Shifter like Eren hidden in the storehouse… but as soon as Auruo had tried to approach the warehouse and maybe try to make the men spill some details asking inconspicuous and random things, the only answer he obtained was a bullet. Out of fucking nowhere.

That had made clear that those patrolling the storehouse were waiting for them, waiting for someone to snoop around their affairs. And fuck his life, Levi found that those stupid men were surprisingly organized: not only they were able to keep them at bay with a lot of fire power, but Petra had told him that Sasha and Connie’s squad was attacked too, effectively distracting them from covering the backs of the Special OP squad.

Obviously, if Levi hadn’t been given the order to _entertain_ those scums, he and his teammates could have closed the games hours ago, but they were sausages hanged over the mouths of rabid dogs. Decoys to kept the idiots guarding the warehouse barking and firing against them. What didn’t sit right with the operation, was the obnoxious opposition they found and the lack of news from the recovery squad.

“Shut up. If Erwin said to retreat, we’ll obey. Nothing more, nothing less.” Cut off the Captain, checking his own gun and instinctively lowering his head after the nth time bullets were fired in their direction. “Maybe he’ll tell us more when we’re in the safe house. Those eyebrows are full of secrets.”

Despite the situation, Petra and Erd chuckled and the strawberry blonde woman added “He said one last thing.” Levi and Erd looked at her and she grinned, holding her ingram more securely. “Wipe them out as quickly as you can.” She imitated Erwin’s deep voice with scarce success, but the effect make the tall man laugh and Levi click his tongue in amusement.

The raven caught Auruo’s and Gunther’s attention and passed his hand flat against his own throat in a quick cut movement. The two men nodded as they understood the command and took a moment to recharge their own weapons.

Levi shot a glance around the trash cans barrier protecting him and took in the situation. Almost twenty meters divided the barricades, more than a dozen men hidden behind and emptying their guns in the night, those idiots. Even with silencers, they were making a lot of rackus and if Levi didn’t know that the guards of the port had been bribed, he would expect them taking part in the conflict. Luckily he would only have to keep his eyes on the smugglers. He evaluated their chances and was ready to contact Sasha to ask her to kindly do her fucking job and save their asses, for that was the only chance they’d have to cross the open space before them, but Petra grabbed him by his wrist.

“Captain, since it’s your first time fighting with the aid of your own Titan… maybe this is the right chance to see what your bond is actually capable of.” She eyed him carefully. “It could be a good occasion to test Eren’s abilities, since I wouldn’t let you walk in the open without your Titan’s aid.” She rubbed a hand over her nape, where the chip was implanted “I’m already activating my Titan’s abilities.” And if the Captain squinted, he could perceive the little changes in the woman: shoulders straight, grip firm, eyes shining and without trace of wariness and tiredness after hours of operations… overall, she seemed reinvigorated.

Levi looked at her in suspicion, he was sure they could handle this like they always had now that they didn’t have to _pretend_ but could actually fight those uncultured swine, but admitted that it would be interesting to step up his game and see where it would lead him.

“Captain.” Said Petra again, voice stern “Humans bond Titans to protect each other. You’re not exploiting Eren and you’re not a coward. You’re the only one who doesn’t want help, but now you have Eren and you cannot go back, so…” she shrugged. It was true, Levi bitterly admitted: now he was bonded and needed to do right by his Shifter. If releasing his powers helped to stabilize the Titan, he would do it. So Levi did as Hanji had explained to him: to push the vital waves enhancer into motion, the mate in need had to incite the body to communicate the _need_.

To solve the problem Eren had come up with the best idea since he arrived. Levi brought his free hand to his mouth, pushed aside the glove and bit down the flesh hard enough to draw blood.

Immediately, the pain of the action caused an electricity quake in his body, his blood started boiling in his veins and the chip spiked to life, swamping him in hot jolts. Levi shivered, feeling the sheer strength running through his limbs. The raven’s senses sharpened and he felt Eren’s presence as the source of the renewed force –mingled with the worry for his human mate, wondering what kind of situation needed the Shifter’s abilities. Levi shook his head, focusing once again over the task ahead, knowing that the sooner he ended it, the sooner he could rejoin his Titan… well, that was a ridiculous thought, but there was no time to dwell on his crazy instincts as Levi trembled in the effort to restrain his energy. The bite sign was already healing in whirls of white hot smoke.

“Let’s wrap this shit up, guys.” He was able to say before his legs sprinted, launching him into the open space of the port. He almost laughed like a crazy nut, feeling like Neo in the Matrix: his senses spiked so high that Levi perceived everything going on in slow motion. He could tell where the rain of bullets was going to fall, his mind immediately catching on any change in trajectory and his body reacted faster than ever. Bones almost cracking with the strength he put in every movement, muscles stretching to the limits under the pressure, he twirled and jumped quick and deadly like the thunder, dancing with the fire coming from Sasha and Connie who were helping them the cleanup with the smugglers.

Firstly, Levi launched against the flank of the smugglers’ barricades –that one made of trash bins too, knocking it up by jumping over it and making the iron containers ruin over the men firing at him. They screamed in surprise, not expecting his speed. Levi crouched over the bins for a moment, adding his weight and hoping that was enough to slow down the bullets.

He was aware of his comrades behind him, covering his back firing their own guns, while he spun and whirled quick as the wind from point to point, knocking down enemy after enemy. Now that he was behind enemy’s lines, he was out of bullet range thanks to the vital waves enhancer that gave him the extra speed.

“You dirty motherfuck-!” a heavy boot collided against the mouth spitting lies on Levi. The raven haired man clicked his tongue. _Thank you, shitbag, he was dirty because he fucking crawled on the ground for almost an hour trying to being shot by the scumbag and his little friends._

Levi stomped over the man’s face another time, just because he could. Then he ducked as one of Sasha’s bullets knocked down a man that tried to come up from behind the Captain. Sprinted forward to the center of the smugglers’ group, shot the two me he found on his path and caught the bigger man’s corpse before it touched the ground. Levi hid behind it and as crude and gross was –with blood trickling down Levi’s arm with every stray bullet that hit the dead body, it allowed the raven a moment to breathe.

Luckily his teammates had joined him and now were breaking through the other flank of the barricade, distracting the smugglers from his presence. Levi took another mouthful of humid and smelly air, but didn’t close his eyes: he feared that in doing so, he could lose himself into the strong sensations coming from the vital waves enhancer. So put away his gun and kept grey orbs directed on the gruesome scene in front of him.

Moved when deemed the right moment, sidestepped a pool of blood and punched another man. With his right hand Levi gripped his loyal knife and started to slash tender flesh and legs tendons. In this kind of fight, he trusted his blade more than a gun, since he didn’t want to hit one of his comrades with a stray bullet.

So Levi kept slowing down and corroding the resistance, allowing Gunther and Auruo to take down the men and noticing how the number of their opponents gradually decreased. While Levi’s body was trained to fight and react fast, his mind was far too quicker and even if the men shooting against Legion couldn’t match his movements, to block a too fast spinning, Levi put his left foot in a precarious position, losing his momentum.

The nearest smuggler noticed it, or maybe he was only lucky, but in that exact moment he fired in Levi’s direction. The raven’s ears registered the near shoot and his eyes saw Auruo swooping over the man and knocking him down.

“Captain!”

Levi registered all that happened and he was ready to jump again, but as fast as his mind was, this time the raven’s body could not follow. The Captain grunted in pain as the bullet caught his leg, sending him rolling on the floor. A few shots resounded into the night again and then silence.

For a few seconds, the open area in front of the storehouse was disturbed by nothing but the echo of the resounding waves, smoke smelling of sulfur floating over their head after all the firing.

“Sir!” came Gunther’s voice, the man kneeling next to Levi to assess his condition. Petra was already communicating to the HQ their situation, while Erd and Auruo proceeded to pile up the corpses and hide them into the trash bins, retrieving the weapons abandoned by their opponents.

“Sir, answer me!” Gunther tried again, seeing Levi’s shaking form curled on the ground. “Can you move?” soon Petra was with them, worry distorting her cute face when she saw him.

Levi lay on his side breathing shallowly and clutching his right leg, white smoke coming from it and eyes finally tight close in a grimace.

“He’s been shot.” Said Petra. “Let’s move him away from here. Queen Bee have already took care of the guards patrolling the area and retreated. Soon the Cleaners will be here to cover this mess up and cancel eventual registrations on the safety cameras.” She briefly updated her teammates. Gunther nodded and stood, calling Erd.

Levi’s consciousness had failed him for a heartbeat, right after the shoot, because when he hit the cemented floor he was very well fucking aware. His body was a massive block of wood and pain, too heavy to move, but the vital waves enhancer still sent jibes to make him stand and search for Eren. Only Eren, _Eren, Eren._

Levi felt the gravity shift when Erd picked him up and started to run. He wanted to yell for jostling him so much but suddenly his body was too hot to think, limbs constantly treaded by quakes of energy still steaming from the chip, vital waves strongly resonating with his Shifter’s ones… he didn’t even feel anymore the excruciating pain in the leg, as the wound was almost healed.

“…Eren?” Levi heard himself call. He had lost a lot of blood and the stunt he pulled with his Titan’s bond was taking its toll over his body. Finally he felt all the tiredness and the strain he put his system through in those few hours that they wasted… damn, if he wasn’t so out of it, he would have been pissed.

And would have kicked Erd for picking him up like a baby… his height be damned.

As Levi was tossed on Erd’s shoulders, his eyes closed on their own volition, leaving him blind in the turmoil that the chip had created. He felt drained, like he had used that boost of energy not only for himself, but for his Shifter too. During their training they never overworked themselves, fearing what could have happened if they triggered Eren’s abilities to the maximum, but maybe they had been wrong.

Maybe they had to try this in safer conditions… yet, this mission was originally only a recovery one… a piece of cake, they said. _Tch_. Fuck that, shit happens and if they weren’t ready for this, no one would.

Levi wasn’t worried about the mission, he knew that Erwin had already come up with some screwed idea to make this work and allow them to end this like originally planned. He trusted the man and his amazing – albeit ruthless, mind.

He was worried about Eren. He hadn’t heard a single thing from the recovery squad and that could mean that everything went alright and the kids didn’t find any problem, or the exact opposite. As an unsettling nausea surged in his stomach, the raven shut down the idea into the furthest corner of his mind.

The possibility that something could have happened to Eren… no, Kirschtein may have been an obnoxious little shit, but he had remarkable leading skills and was one of the smartest of 104th. Then there was Bodt, the freckled guardian angel that complemented the two-toned haired guy perfectly. He was the common sense that lacked the other two idiots.

Levi’s last energies were being drained again and the sudden need to go and find his shitty brat became overwhelming. If Erd hadn’t been carrying him, he would have crawled on his teeth to reach the Shifter. Something in the pit of his gut told him that this prostration wasn’t natural, the raising temperature in his body the sign of the strain that the nanomachines into the chip had sustained…

But they hadn’t fought for long, so why…?

With one careless movement, a sharp pain cut through Levi’s fuzzy mind, reminding him that he had been injured.

 _Ah. That was it._ “He’s hurt.” Mumbled Levi. Erd didn’t give much attention to his rambling, focused on getting away from the mess they left behind and running into the narrow streets to the safe house they would be hiding in with the others. But he did felt his Captain’s body stiffen.

“Come on, Capn’, we’re almost there!” Erd whispered, fearing that the wound in Levi’s leg had reopened.

The raven tried to shook his head and called again his brunet’s name but, as he faded into unconsciousness, he realized the voices that answered him were not the one he wanted to hear the most.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I hope this chap didn't disappoint anyone, because I want to remember you that I absolutely don't know what I'm doing with this!!! Were the fighting scenes clear? Do you think I have to spend more words in describing the settings?  
> Any comment is very much appreciated and helps me a lot in improving my writing and understanding what you'd like to read (and in finding what I want to write, too!), so thanks to anyone who will leave a feedback <3


	8. Titan(ium) - part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry ｡･ﾟ･(●ﾉДﾉ)･ﾟ･｡  
> I can't say anything else. This chapter was due *months* ago....but I'm a stubborn shit and wanted to wrap all this arc in one go...as you can see, I wasn't able to. So I had to split this in two and I have to admit that the second part is giving me shit.  
> But take this, lovelies. Thank you all for bearing with me <3

Around a small table, hidden in an inconspicuous basement of the safe house, Auruo and Petra stood with Erd and Gunther. The safe house they were currently hiding in, was one of the few places Legion own on the island. There lived a couple –fake, obviously, of Legion agents who kept an eye over Tamatave illegal trades. The couple housing the Spec Op squad had an old plate on their small fence with ‘Browns’ written on it in a washed-out red.

The Browns had been waiting for Legion soldiers, alerted by HQ of their arrival. The old couple had immediately provided for shelter, first aid kits and a laptop with protected connection to contact the base. Legion soldiers were to remain hidden in the secret basement while the undercover agents looked out for any strange movement around the area and cleaned the mess their colleagues left behind.

Spec OP squad’s tired and bruised faces were lit by the blue reflex of a laptop. On its screen were Commander Smith’s scowl and larger windows with new information and data.

 _“We’re analyzing all the things Yankee sent us from their watching around the port in the last few days.”_ Crackled Erwin’s voice from the speakers. _“Be ready to leave into a few hours, we cannot lose too much time if we want to intercept the cargo we lost.”_ His face was tense and voice tight. It was clear that he was the most disappointed about the outcome of the night. And no one in Legion wanted a disappointed Erwin Smith, no sir. The Spec Op squad didn’t envy Mike and Ymir.

Behind Smith’s back they could see Armin and Historia tapping furiously on their computers, doing only god knew what under Erwin’s directions. _“In this very moment Queen Bee’s taking care of…persuading to speak the few living men you left behind.”_ The blonde went on, his massive eyebrows more threatening than ever. _“But I won’t confide in them knowing much. I’ll have you know that we’re trying to coax the Merchant Marine to release some of their intelligence about the sea traffic. I hope those insights might be useful to allow the identification of the next place the smugglers intend to choose for their exchange.”_

“That won’t be easy, sir. The Merchant Marine is very jealous about their information… fucking constipated.” Commented Auruo. Petra rolled her eyes hearing the similarity to the Captain’s wording, but said nothing.

 _“Indeed.”_ Agreed Erwin. He gave a nod in Armin and Historia’s direction. _“But I know what strings to pull. Is the Captain alright? I received your small report about the night events.”_

“He’s recovering, Commander.” Replied Petra. “He’s been shot in his leg and suffered a slightly concussion from the fight, but when we arrived he was already healing. Still unconscious, though. The stunt with his Titan’s skill took a toll on him, we couldn’t assess his whole condition. His Shifter’s with him, now they’re resting, but we don’t know if the Omega Shifter’s heat-“

 _“Will they be able to continue the mission, soldier?”_ interrupted Erwin.

A second passed. “I suppose so, sir.” Petra nodded, keeping to herself any comment about the Commander’s infamous pragmatism. He was not a bad man, but a no non-sense one, and very dedicated, too. He was highly denigrated outside Legion for his supposed indifference towards his subordinates. But he was also respected and feared, because he not only had the means, but the acute intelligence to carry on whatever plan he set himself on.

Erwin Smith was an outstanding human being, a great asset to anyone who looked for his help, who had dedicated all his life for the greater good. No one ever wanted Erwin Smith as their enemy, god forbid, he would make you dance in the palm of his hand and kill yourself with a smile on your face. And even if he was considered a soulless son of a bitch, using Captain Ackerman’s words, Legion couldn’t count on a better leader. No one but him would be able to guide Legion, the sharpest weapon humanity had available.

 _“Very well.”_ He concluded. _“We’ll keep you updated and contact you when, or if, Queen Bee report their news. In the meantime stay where you are and rest. I’m going to need you operative soon.”_ And that said, Erwin saluted bringing the right fist over his heart and closed the communications, while the information still run over the blue screen, giving the room the vague aspect of an aquarium.

Erd sighed and collapsed on a chair. “Man, I’m so tired! I can’t think we have to go out again in a few hours.”

“Stop complaining.” Said Gunther, inspecting his Titan’s injures. Just a few scratch on his arms. Auruo and Erd didn’t heal as fast as Eren or the other Shifters, but still faster than normal humans. Levi had been the one to sustain the most damage, so they wouldn’t have problems going on with the mission.

Petra and Auruo were busy updating their mobiles, downloading the information coming from the laptop on the table, ignoring the others.

Jean grunted behind them “Ouch, Marco!”

“Shush, don’t be a baby.” Replied the freckled guy, wrapping a gauze tightly around Jean’s arm. “Be thankful that we escaped with only a few scratches.”

“Yeah, thankful for having that suicidal bastard going berserk and trying to chop our heads off with a potato peeler.” Quipped the two toned haired guy.

Marco rolled his eyes. “A six inches knife is not a potato peeler, Jean. And after what I saw tonight…” Marco swallowed and dropped his voice. “I think that even a potato peeler would be deadly in Eren’s hands.” The two guys remained silent for a while and Marco finished the bandage, smacking his hand lightly on Jean’s arm.

“What would have happened if we didn’t hide? What if he found us? He couldn’t recognize –shit. He went completely nuts. That was… this is bullshit.” Jean was still shaken. He was not a coward and had served in Legion enough to have already seen a lot of messed up things, but seeing stupid, obnoxious, loud mouthed Jaeger transforming in a blood thirsty beast was something that would hunt his dreams for quite some time.

Marco pressed his lips together in a pensive motion, “I know, Jean, but he saved our asses out there. With all those men, it could have ended badly. We could be dead now!” Jean kept his tawny stare on the old and smudgy sofa cushions they were sitting on. “Listen… it was scary, I’m not ashamed to admit it. Hell, we were three against at least ten of them, all heavily armed! Eren reacted quicker than us, took all those bullets in our place… until the big commotion came from the front of the store house, when the Spec OP squad went all out, Eren was in a frenzy, yes, but he was still somehow in control.”

“When I reported to Erd and Petra, we compared our version and I think that until Captain Ackerman was conscious, Eren knew where he was and what he was doing –more or less, because that look in his eyes was… intense.” Marco forced out a laugh to dissolve a little tension and Jean immediately relaxed. Yeah, Marco Bodt had a contagious smile.

Jean looked at his longtime companion with a defeated, small smile. “Well I guess you’re right. I mean, that was really awful and after this mission I’ll refuse to have Jaeger in my squad again but-“ Marco rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly, but Jean went on speaking “we’re safe, for now. I know that Titans have their own strange dynamics and Shifters are even more of a mess to handle, but if you already informed the Spec OP guys and the Commander…” he shrugged.

“Hold tight, big guy,” said mockingly Marco, a grin plastered on his olive skinned face “ ’cause we still have to wrap this disaster mission up. You can complain once back to Legion, but for now, man up and know that I have your back. Eren, too.” The freckled guy gave him a meaningful look that Jean really tried to hold, but soon found himself lowering his stare, not able to doubt Marco’s words.

“Tsk, you like to boss me around, don’t you, Bodt.”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Now go fetch me something to eat, since I helped you with your arm and gave you free psychological support.” Marco laughed and sat more comfortably on the old couch. Jean stood begrudgingly, but obeyed. He always obeyed Marco. Damn. He swore to deny to any living soul he had a soft spot for Marco brain-washing-smile Bodt.

While he rummaged in the fridge of the hidden basement, between dehydrated food and vitamin juice, the two toned haired guy came to the conclusion that he could trust Captain Ackerman and the Spec OP squad to keep an eye over the situation about Eren and Levi himself. Moreover, Marco would be there: they’d been together for so long that trusting the other boy’s instinct was second nature to Jean. He didn’t like to not have everything under control, in the end he was responsible for his little squad, but team work existed exactly for the purpose of overcoming such difficulties. In that, and in Marco, he could confide.

Jean collected something that seemed remotely edible, nodded to himself and made his way back to the couch, happy that Eren wasn’t there to tease him with another of his nodding-and-counting-horse jokes.

******

Levi felt like a steamroller had run over him. It was an odd sensation, because he didn’t feel any pain, only heavy and boneless, like recovering from a high fever. His consciousness was still sinking under the immense tiredness that kept his eyes closed. He tried to move, but couldn’t. Felt constricted and tried to breathe deeper. Found that he couldn’t. Something was pressing around his ribs and over the chest.

The raven squirmed in his slumber, finally able to open his eyes to assess the situation. He was in a small room without windows, the darkness broken by the yellow light coming from the door that was slightly ajar on the opposite side of the room. More like a closet.

So, he was not in jail, for those police scum didn’t bother with real beds. Nor he was a prisoner, since the door wasn’t locked and he didn’t feel any constriction around his limbs. Well, apart the dead weight on his torso.

An oddly _breathing_ and _mumbling_ weight. Levi cocked his head to look at Eren’s wild mop of hair right under his chin, the brunet’s arms holding him tight.

Levi groaned. This was becoming a disturbing habit.

“Eren…” he drawled, his tongue like a piece of sandpaper. He chewed on air, lapped his dried lips and called again “Brat… Wake up!” Eren mumbled something incoherent and the Captain cussed under his breath, falling back on the pillow but trying to loosen the vice grip of the Shifter’s arms. “Oh, for god’s sake… more clingy than a little shit under my boot-“

Eren groaned like a bear waking up from hibernation, “Nnh… Stop movin’round.” He mumbled and readjusted himself over Levi’s body. He nuzzled the older man’s abdomen covered with his battle black t-shirt, right over the belly button and inhaled, humming with satisfaction. Levi froze.

_Damn, that kid would be the death of him! He and his damn sleepy need for cuddles!_

Eren had his face still buried in Levi’s abdomen, when the Captain heard voices outside the room. His Shifter had distracted him, so the raven didn’t know what was happening, where they were and who the fuck got them there.

Levi moved under Eren’s weight, but was too tired to dislodge him. So he tried to reason with him. “Oi, brat, I have to get up and know what’s up with us.”

Eren nodded and took advantage of the motion to nuzzle some more into that six pack that was usually covered by clothes. _Tch. Stupid clothes, who needed them when you have the body of Captain Ackerm-_ Eren raised his head suddenly, looking at his Captain’s face with wide, sleepy eyes and a terrible blush. Thank fuck for the poorly lightened room. And wait… did he just mind-clicked his tongue just like Levi? Man, the short tempered soldier was really starting to rub off him.

“-en. Eren! Hell, did you hit your head so badly that you’re not able to use your brain anymore?!”

Eren blinked twice and finally seemed to realize that his human was sneering against him. “Eeep!” the brunet squeaked and sat over his haunches, hands held high like he had been caught with them into the cookie jar… and in some ways that was exactly the case… only, _his jar was full with only one, quite small, secretly cuddly, grumpy cookie. Okay, stop that. Abort mission, Jeager, abort the fucking mission before you start laughing in his face and end up with no face at all!_

“Argh, I’m going to tie you with a leash tonight. Maybe then you’ll stay still.” Complained Levi again and Eren should really stop his mind from wandering into not safe for work directions. “Can’t always wake up with you all over me, damn mutt.” Tch-ed the raven, and the Shifter scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, desperately trying to collect himself.

“Ehm…” Eren cleared his voice and looked at Levi with his head slightly lowered, observing him from under his lashes with large peacock puppy eyes. “I was worried… I lost you.” Mumbled, unsure about what expected him, since Levi’s expression was unreadable as usual and his eyes still too unfocused to help him interpret the man.

“Lost?” Levi repeated and raised with caution, sitting criss cross in front of the brunet. “What the fuck happened here? I’m out for a few minutes-“

“More like hours, Captain.”

“Hours?”

“Polly wants a cookie?” Eren’s lopsided grin was unfairly gorgeous in that dim room, all sparkling eyes and white teeth and sleep mussed hair… Levi hated everything in that moment.

So he smacked Eren’s head. Hard. “Oi, shitbag. Stop sassing me if you like your teeth were they are. Explain.”

“Grumpy old porcupine…” another smack on the base of his neck. “OUCH! Could you _please_ stop that? I’ll throw up the vital waves enhancer if you go on!”

“Could you _please fucking_ elaborate what the hell happened? Where are we? Why am I-“ and then Levi remembered with a jolt that he had been shot. Again. Shit. The story of his life. He looked at his leg and saw that he was wearing only his dark briefs. Passed an open hand over unmarred white flesh. His eyes slit threateningly and teeth clenched, while his forefinger pointed at his immaculate and very naked legs. “Speak. Now.”

Eren lips puckered and he snorted. “Well, we could begin with at least a ‘thank you’! I changed you, you clean freak, because you’ve been shot, you know, and you did bleed a fucking lot and your clothes were a soaked mess! Jesus!” Eren passed his hands through his dark brown locks, that really were too long and covered big part of the boy’s strong jaw, curling around his long neck and giving him a shaggy air that none else could pull off with such natural appeal. Levi briefly thought that it was a pity. A sexy pity.

Eren felt Levi’s stare burn him and repressed a shiver.

Damn, what was going on with him today?! (this would be what both the Shifter and his human were guessing at the same time… if only the vital waves enhancer could transmit thoughts as well as sensations).

“I felt you getting into the heat of the fight, felt you biting your hand –yeah, I recognized the type of…” Eren moved his fingers like he was playing a piano, “particular electrical signal that the chip sent. The stimulus, like?” He shrugged, “So in the middle of that mayhem I felt you activating the enhancer and I admit it was kinda… eh, interesting.” He was fidgeting again, but Levi deemed it more important to let him finish. God, the boy had the attention span of a hummingbird. He would grill him for his hidden thoughts later.

“Yeah. It was really something else.” For the first time after he had voluntarily activated his Shifter’s abilities, the raven was starting to realize what it meant: he had felt powerful, unstoppable. He was quicker, stronger, all of his senses sharper. He was deadlier. A fucking one man army.

“But it didn’t seem to be an intelligent move.” Said bitterly Levi, remembering how his body couldn’t fully keep up with all the strength that poured from the bond with his Titan.

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock.” Snorted Eren, shaking his head. Levi kicked one of his leg and raised his right forefinger in a warning.

“Well, I wouldn’t know what was expecting me, would I?” Levi crossed his arms in front of him. “We never really tried some tough shit during our training sessions.” He wrinkled his eyebrows. “I misjudged the situation and my possibilities. I’ll see to change this when we go back.”

Eren was dumbstruck. When Jean and Connie had said that Captain Ackerman was a lonely wolf and an introverted prick, he laughed, because the picture was quite accurate, but now he realized that the two had been wrong. Levi was different, true… but here, in that very moment, Legion’s Strongest was speaking and joking and expressing his concerns to him.

Once again Eren remembered Hanji’s words when he awoke the first time and felt relieved that his mate wasn’t a heartless dick. He still was a dick sometimes, yes, but far from heartless. The boy knew he was in a favored position: Eren was one of the few who was allowed to see the real Levi Ackerman.

At the thought, a smile bloomed on his face and the boy released a sigh. “Yeah, let’s do that. We need to understand how all this thing works.”

Slightly confused at the sight of his Shifter’s smile, Levi opened and closed his mouth, the bored expression back. “We need to know what the fuck you’re really able to do. Damn, Hanji will pester us to no end. Go on now, finish telling me what happened.”

Eren shrugged with one shoulder. “Well, I came back with Jean and Marco after the mission went down the drain and found Petra and the others fretting over you. I knew something was wrong because…” he scratched his head again in frustration. “Damn. Okay, I need to digress to explain. Listen.“ Levi unconsciously drew closer, like a three years old at kindergarten during story time. Eren almost cooed to him. Almost. He really liked his teeth where they were.

“First of all, both you and I are fine thanks to my healing abilities.” He spread his arms to prove his point and Levi’s muscular legs were still in display, so. “We’ve no casualties, only injured soldiers. Some minor scratches, your squad has seen the worst. But they’re all bonded to Titans, so they’re healing pretty fast. Second, we’re in one of the safe houses the HQ directed us to. They divided the squads on the operation in three different places, and stationed a Shifter in each one. We’re the designated couple for this one.” He grinned and pointed at the two of them, quickly shifting the discussion away from the couple reference.

Levi was pleasantly surprised, the brat was finally giving him useful information. He taught him well. Okay, so they were safe but their mission ended badly. Like ten thousand of shit badly. Well, Erwin would think about it, but he needed to brief with him as soon as possible. “Okay, good to know. Go on.”

“Okay, so. We entered the storehouse to retrieve the Titans’ components that were to be sold on the Black Market, but there was something strange. We didn’t encounter much resistance at the beginning, but we didn’t know the exact position of the cargo, so we had to search for it.” Eren’s thick eyebrows furrowed, peacock eyes fogged by memories. “We never found it, it was all a set up. We only found a bigger group of men expecting us… ready to engage. Not to defend or guard any precious cargo, but to fight and stop us.” Eren’s voice became feeble and he blinked violently, eyes always fixed on the sheets around Levi’s legs.

The Shifter didn’t speak, but the waves that shook Levi through the chip were all but quiet. Inside the tanned boy was going on a war of guilt, sorrow, pride and fear. Surprise, too, because the young Titan didn’t think he would spill the beans so easily and so soon.

“Oi. What happened?” tried the Captain, checking the worry that instinctively tainted his voice.

Eren shook his head and squeezed his eyes.

“Eren… we’ve already gone through this, if you don’t speak-”

“I’m a monster!” shouted Eren, exposing his teeth like a hurt beast, angry tears gathering on the lower rim of his stunning eyes.

Levi recoiled from the force of the vital waves resounding into him and taking him down, leaving him bare in front of the boy’s feelings. He couldn’t escape the intensity of those emotions. Not only he could empathize with the boy, he got it under his own skin, like the feeling was born from his own soul. Never before the wording ‘I feel you’ seemed to fit better.

What the hell was the vital waves enhancer, for connecting two people so deeply and intimately?

Levi blinked like a stupid and blurted out a “What the hell do you mean?”

That only helped plummeting the situation down. “What do I mean?! Do you wanna know, Captain? Why don’t you ask Jean? Why don’t you ask him how I slayed, without a second thought, every single man I found on my way? Just like a fucked up rabid animal!” Eren spat, tears and snot glistening in the dim light of the room, his teal eyes aflame and spirited. Levi was shocked, maybe a little scared under the intensity of that stare.

The raven knew that the boy possessed a strong spirit and was the type to mull over things until he couldn’t hold onto himself anymore and ended up exploding with his emotions… he was almost waiting for this moment of realization. But most of all, Levi was surprised to find himself helplessly drown to the Shifter, like a moth to the flame.

“Ask Marco how I lost it! Ask him how I didn’t care about how many times they shot me, how many liters of blood I lost as I cut through them with the blade you gave me! I didn’t know who I was or what I was doing, I only knew that we were in danger and I reacted. Quicker and stronger than I’ve never been. But that wasn’t me.” Drawled Eren, his voice no more a raging growl but a quivering, pathetic whine as his body recalled the deathly sensation of dozens of bullets boring into his flesh.

Even if his mind didn’t register the pain, overwhelmed with the chip induced frenzy, his body remembered and recognized the unmistakable signs of a life threatening situation. He remembered what felt like having his arms and legs slowed down by the impact of each shot, the momentum lost as he strained for more strength to deliver the final blow. The same strength that allowed him to snake around his enemy’s defenses and reach with red hands every throat and heart, sinking the cruel iron into soft, pulsing flesh.

He shivered and forced himself to speak, to not get lost into those thoughts of death. “That wasn’t me, Levi, but when I lost you, I lost myself.” He sobbed and brought his hands to his face, rubbing angrily at his eyes.

Neither of them realize it, but Levi’s arms found their way around Eren’s quivering shoulders. The raven pulled him in his lap –not without some effort, and the brunet threw every shame out the window and let his arms slip around his human’s neck, hiding his face into the crook of Levi’s neck.

Saying that Levi was confused was a fricking understatement. He made small shushing sounds, trying to calm down the Shifter, but soon enough he understood that he only had to wait until Eren had cried all his frustration out. Because even if the Captain was as useless as a broken toilet in front of weeping people, he knew that his brunet needed this.

He had been thrown in a world completely different from the one he lived in, one he didn’t chose, bonded to a stranger and then sailed to fight –and kill!, some dirtbags on the other side of the world. Fuck, Levi would have already tried to hang himself –and everyone else, for that matter, if he were in his shoes.

But Eren’s strong, he didn’t know where he found all the strength the boy always showed. He was one of the most tenacious shit he knew, dedicated, gifted, brave and stubborn as fuck. He was a fighter.

“Hell, yeah.” Breathed exhausted the snotty brat into Levi’s chest.

“What?”

Eren pulled away enough to look at Levi, all puffy eyes and red nose. “You said that I’m strong and tenacious and dedicated. Gifted, brave and stubborn. _As fuck._ You also said I’m a little shit.” He sniffed and Levi felt his temperature raise, signaling another blushing attack. “Thanks, I guess. Coming from you, I take it as a compliment.”

_Oh, shit. Oh, goddamn motherfucking shitty fucking shit fuckers! He didn’t say that aloud, right?!_

_“Now you’re embarrassed!” Eren laughed, throwing his head back, but still holding onto Levi’s neck, fingers slightly scratching his undercut. Levi secretly prayed he would stop that, because of the things he was realizing it did to him._

_“Fuck you!” spat the raven, wishing his blush away and trying to disentangle once again from the brunet’s grip. “How comes that you remember perfectly all the shit I just said and not how to assemble your handgun?!”_

_Eren was still chuckling when he finally let go of Levi. He didn’t move from the man’s lap, though, and looked at him in defiance. “I do remember how to do it, in fact, and you know it, old man. Is your Alzheimer getting worse?”_

_Levi pinched Eren’s side, making the younger boy jump and rub with his hand the hurting point. “What do you mean when you say that ‘you lost me’?” asked again the raven, his voice controlled._

_The brunet stiffened and sniffed before sagging into his Captain’s lap, all the smug air he had just regained, gone. “Well… when you bit your hand, activating our bond abilities, or whatever do you want to call that, I was able to feel your strong will through the chip, just like it happened during training. But the more we used that strength, the more I got sucked into the frenzy. I guess that the only thing keeping me rooted was you. But you fainted and I sensed that! That is, I didn’t sense you anymore. In that moment I lost every contact I held with reality.” Vibrant peacock eyes looked at grey orbs with distant fear in them. “The last thing I remember before…” Eren swallowed audibly, “before awakening on Marco’s back, was the pain of you being shot. It felt much more real than my own injures.”_

_“You fought till you lost consciousness?”_

_Eren shrugged “Well, yeah, but that’s not really the point-“_

_“Jaeger…” Levi growled, warning him that he didn’t like the direction this was taking. Levi didn’t want to know that the Omega Shifter had pushed himself to the point of collapsing. All with him out of reach and not in a better situation. Jesus, they had to really work on this jazz, or this bond could kill the both of them._

_“No, listen, I don’t know if it was for my body injuries or because our vital waves enhancers snapped suddenly… It was inevitable, I was reduced to a colander and all those… corpses, the smell of the blood-“ he brought a hand over his mouth, stifling a whine. His abdomen contracted in a retch and Levi panicked._

_“O-oi, if you have to throw up, don’t you fucking dare to do it all over me, brat, or I swear to god I’ll skin you alive and dry myself with your poor remains.”_

_Seconds passed and Eren was still breathing hard behind his hand, the other one fisted into his own lap. Levi sighed and since the boy hadn’t emptied his stomach, he guessed the worst had passed. So he stretched toward him and drew circles over Eren’s back._

_Levi was worried; the Omega Shifter had just begun to sleep through the night without waking up every two hours because of nightmares, he didn’t need other PTSD prompts in his life… But of course the raven was deluding himself, because being in Legion meant that every day could be a PTSD day. He felt guilty even if it wasn’t his fault that Eren was in this situation, even if he didn’t want to bond him in the beginning. He felt guilty for what happened a few hours prior, because he hadn’t thought enough before acting and caused his Titan to suffer. “Eren, I’m-“_

_“Don’t say it. It’s not your fault.” Immediately interrupted the tanned boy, lowering his hand and looking straight at the Captain. “We’re together in this and we both fucked up. I couldn’t control my strength back there, so instead of being an asset, I ended up being a liability. Pony boy has been on my case since we came back, because he and Marco had to hid themselves from me, to… not, you know… being slaughtered like the others.” He looked down and gulped aloud. “I have to work on this, so that the next time we’ll be able to use it. Our strength, I mean.”_

_Levi sucked his teeth and let his grey eyes focus on the light coming from the door. “That’s not completely true. Because even if I’m sure we’ll both pay for your number of last night –both mentally and physically, I know that you saved your squad’s ass. You were not a liability. If not for poor Bodt that had to carry you back. But he’s already on the list for being a saint, so no problem.” Eren snorted, amused despite himself._

_Levi maintained his blank expression but was incredulous, because for once in his life he wanted to apologize and the idiot had stopped him. “You know, you won’t have another apology for the next two years. You lost your chance, ass.”_

_Eren grinned, showing his white teeth. “I’m sure I’ll pull out another from you in no time.” He shrugged. And after a heartbeat added, “Maybe after this disaster of a mission we should ask for help. You know, with this bond thing.”_

_Levi hummed in agreement, already fearing Eren’s next words._

_And in fact, the Shifter ended with “To Hanji.” Levi collapsed back on his back, defeated, Eren still perched in his lap awkwardly. The tanned boy yelped from the shift in position and decided it was a good moment to sit back on the mattress._

_“I know, damn. That crazy glassed fucktard will use us as their personal guinea pigs, I swear. They’re going to do things that not even Reiner and Bertholdt went through.” He run a hand over his face, stopping it over his mouth and looked at his Omega with dead eyes._

_“Psh, at least you’re used to Hanji’s methods! You know each other since when? Pleistocene?”_

_“Shut your trap, mutt. But that was accurate enough.” Deadpanned Levi. He hissed, because his fingers raked over his bruised lips. The raven furrowed his brow and patted over his mouth gingerly. Weren’t all the injures meant to heal thanks to the bond? He was pretty sure that he collided against something during that night clash, but no one was able to hit him in the face. And even if it was the case, all the bruises had to be already healed. Even the shot in his leg was only a faint memory, so why…?_

_Then he remembered excerpts of a certain conversation and the part of his brain that spoke with Hanji’s obnoxious voice, explained to him that_ _not every_ _sign marring his body would fade. The ones made by his mate, in particular, did not._

_Levi looked at Eren, fingers still on his swollen lips. Arched an eyebrow, expecting an answer to the unspoken question._

_Annnd there he had Eren, squirming under his gaze and sending all the jingle bells down his spine through the vital waves enhancer. The kid was hiding something._

_“You know…” drawled the Captain, sitting once again, “it’s really a useless waste of time trying to do that.”_

_“Do what?” squeaked the brunet, hunching his shoulders defensively. Like a cat ready to flee under the wardrobe._

_With his finger Levi pointed to the general direction of his mouth and then his neck. “I can feel it. I know you did something and that you’re hiding that very something from me. Something that’s making you really uncomfortable.” Deduced the man slitting his eyes and trying to read his Shifter._

_“N-no? I mean, no. What could I ever-“ Eren was positively sweating and shifting away, trying to reach the edge of the bed._

_Levi nailed him with a x-ray stare and analyzed the waves coming from the chip in his neck._

_Eren was looking at him with wild eyes, but fear didn’t stop him from putting one of his leg off the bed._

_Why was the brat so frustrated? Scared of Levi’s reaction? Hell yeah, and with good reason. But frustrated? Like he was… ashamed of what he had done. Because now Levi was sure that the brat did something. To him, specifically._ _Oh-o_ _, so he was embarrassed for being caught snuggling to his human? No, by now that was a daily occasion._

_Eren tightened his mouth and the part of Levi’s brain infested by Hanji’s voice noticed how the Shifter’s lips were as swollen as he felt his own. Levi’s eyes went wide and the man smirked._

_“Do I have to file a report against you, Jaeger?”_

_“What?” squealed Eren, now standing beside the bed and inching towards the door with his hands opened in front of him in defense. Levi crawled over the bed towards Eren and stood facing him._

_“You know, a report. Like the one you didn’t want to write when Braun harassed you. I think that you useless Shifters have a penchant for sexually harass helpless people.” Levi crinkled his nose._

_Eren laughed through his nose and pointed to the raven “Helpless, you?! AH!”_

_“Yeah. I fainted, you dipshit. So, there. Helpless. And you took advantage of the situation, didn’t you?_ _Horny brat_ _. You grew a pair and went all kinky on me when I had my back turned, uhn?”_

_Eren visibly bristled. “What the fuck are you saying, you old pervert?! I didn’t do anything kinky! It’s you the one who’s fucking day dreaming and thinking that I’d be all over you, when that could barely be called a ki-!“ he slapped his hands over his mouth and went white like a ghost and red like a tomato at the same time. Leave it to Eren Jaeger, the king of extremes._

_“Barely called what?” Levi snorted amused. “So you’re telling me your lips kinda slipped, don’t you?”_

_Eren speared the raven with a scowl, hands still covering his mouth and hating fervently every rhetoric question coming out from the Captain’s mouth. After a few seconds of exchanging sparks through the chip, the Omega Shifter spoke. “It’s not my fault! It’s the damn chip! You know how it is after I use too much energy!” the fire in those peacock eyes grew, just like his voice, “You don’t- we… It’s not like I could control it, okay? I was out of my wits, you were dead to the world and I needed to be stabilized! You don’t know how it is, you weren’t here to see! I was freaking out and since the last time_ _that_ _worked…” he shrugged._

_Levi regarded him with an unimpressed expression, arms tightly crossed over his chest. “So you thought that sucking my face was the solution?”_

_“Would you stop speaking like I raped you?! I had to fend for myself, before I really risked to go out of control, so thanks for_ _nothing_ _asshole!” Eren flipped Levi the bird and stomped out from the room._

_“I’ll file the report!” he heard Levi calling from the other room._

_“Fuck you!” Eren yelled back._

_“You wish, Jaeger!”_

_The tanned Shifter groaned and collapsed on the old couch half occupied with Marco and Jean, the latter wolfing down something resembling food. Luckily the basement was soundproof, so the exchange between him and Levi was mostly lost to the other occupants of the basement. Well, not the last part, but those were their usual banters._

_“Ehy, Eren. ” greeted Marco with a warm smile. “You woke the Captain?”_

_“Mmh…you heard him. Lovely as always. Just wait until he realizes he can’t have coffee.” Eren rolled his eyes and looked at Jean. “Is that thing any good?”_

_With his mouth full, the two toned haired guy answered with a sarcastic “Five star dinner.”_

_“Better than nothing.” Shrugged Marco and nodded towards the small fridge, “There’s something in there if you want.”_

_Eren thanked him and stood, happy to have something to do that could distract him from the recent events. It wasn’t enough that he had just murdered a dozen of men a few hours before, no. That thought alone gave him hell. And he was sure that he’ll pay for that, in one way or another. He had seen how Levi, Legion’s Strongest, coped with his own demons: gallons of bleach, strenuous drills and discipline and just a couple of hours of sleep. How the man still hadn’t gone bald –or gone nuts and committed mass murder, was a mystery to the boy._

Eren grabbed a box containing some ready-made sandwiches and deemed himself lucky. He unpacked the one with the least suspicious ingredients. He couldn’t allow his intestine to surprise him on a mission. That would be embarrassing. Like, please-kill-me-now-and-forget-all-about-me embarrassing.

He chewed slowly, observed Petra speaking with Gunther, Erd and Auruo over some papers sent by HQ. He rolled his eyes at himself and thought that Levi’s shitty sense of humor was contagious. Spreading like a disease. Like the ivy that crawls around the bark of trees. It suffocates and drains them, but when he was younger Eren thought that ivy was like an armor for trees. To him, it seemed that one sustained the other, even if now he knew that ivy was nothing but a parasite.

Just like Levi and him, Eren thought bitterly, munching on another bite of sandwich. It felt like they were invading each other’s life, clinging to one another for an appearance of stability and a normal life. Sometimes it felt natural and a safety anchor, but some other times – like that very night, it was awkward and surreal, to depend so deeply from a stranger and influencing the other’s life to the core. It was a force able to budge the axis which they functioned around, causing their own gravity to shift and collide inevitably. When all that kept happening, Eren couldn’t tell who was the parasite. Was it him, slowing down Levi and his squad and risking Jean’s and Marco’s life? Was it Levi and the whole Legion, that had took him away from his life and were currently injecting fear and murder in his already burnt veins, poisoning his very existence?

What existence? The one Eren led like a brainless and hopeless automaton before being captured? Not giving half a shit of what tomorrow brought, following the same paths every day, the same streets, the same faces, the same empty words, the same Eren.

Eren wasn’t a creature of habits. His mother always joked about his liking of the ocean: since he was a child he always had this unexplainable love for the big mass of water and she used to say that his temper was just as unpredictable and mercurial as the waves. He didn’t get along with most of the people he met in his life. He’d always been too straightforward and confrontational.

But with Levi, Eren felt like he could leash out and the man would probably let him throw his tantrum and punish any childish, useless outburst with making him wash Legion’s underwear and socks for a week. Eren’s ocean could break into the worst of the tempests and Levi would only observe him with his eyes of steel, like the stormy clouds reflecting the raging waters. Waters mirroring the leaden skies, wild and blustering, one always in tune with the other, naturally able to face each other. When he had felt and seen Levi’s injuries, he felt like the ivy protecting the battered bark, keeping the timber whole, taking the burden and the pain and making it vanish in white smoke.

He could do that, it was nothing compared to the raging hot hell of sorrow the Omega Titan was in before Levi had bonded him. It was like a second of pain compared to an eternity of dying slowly. He _could_ do that.

Eren stopped chewing altogether, a small smile forming on his lips. He was still embarrassed for what he had done and the fact that he tried to keep it hidden let him feeling like a hormonal teenager (kissing Levi when he was sleeping to stabilize their vital waves enhancers and hoping the raven wouldn’t remember was childish. The man could read him like an open book, apparently). But after the dream he had just before departing for the mission, he was too ashamed to ask him directly.

It was very strange, because Eren usually didn’t like to tip toe around matters and appreciated Levi’s blunt attitude for this reason, but… that dream had felt so real! The Shifter had woken up in a mess, aroused beyond reason and stupidly alone. He waited long minutes before being able to accept the idea that Levi had locked himself in the bathroom and had left him.

Eren had sighed and brought a hand over his face. He hadn’t told the Captain that he had a _very_ precise idea of what the raven had done in the bathroom for the next fifteen minutes, but the vital waves enhancer had provided him with a sort of running commentary, made of sensations and images. The very same images that the Shifter recalled from his dream.

So that’s the story about their shared wet dream – the wettest that the young Titan could remember in his short existence. _Damn._ Eren was surprised he was still able to look Levi in the eyes and willed his blood to slow down, because popping a boner while eating a sad sandwich was one thing that Jean would carve on Eren’s grave in loving memory.

Said guy came to dispose of his dinner remains and looked funnily at Eren, arching a thin eyebrow at the brunet’s expression. Eren shook his head, signaling everything was alright and to not mind him.

Minutes later, Levi finally emerged from the room he was in and greeted his comrades.

“Captain!” answered the Spec OP squad and even Marco and Jean stood from their place on the couch.

“At ease.” The raven flicked his wrist and sat at the table where his squad already was. “So, what news from the Blondies?” Petra eyed him suspiciously and he rolled his eyes. “I’m fine. I’m not tired, I took a shit, washed my hands and face and I feel lighter, thank you. Now, can we _please_ speak of something more important than my bowel movements?”

Eren still had the sandwich box in his hands. He looked at Levi and tried to focus over the chip connecting them. Then he huffed and imitated his human, rolling his eyes. He took two glasses and filled them with orange juice, then went to join the others.

“Please, Captain, don’t be a prick and tell us if you’re really fine. The Commander wanted to know what your conditions were, we’ve already been asked if you can go on with the mission…” Petra was saying, trying to reason with the man.

“What did you respond?” Levi’s voice was all edges as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Auruo snorted and Gunther answered “Of course we said that you could.”

“Don’t underestimate us, Captain.” Added Erd, a little piqued. “We must ask you this and you know that in our place, you’d do the same.”

Marco and Jean took a seat around the table, too. Levi grimaced. “Maybe. I just feel like I have too many moms. I already have the big, blonde one with bushy eyebrows back at home and honestly, he gives me the fucking creep.” He weighed his squad with an icy glare.

Eren silently placed the sandwich box and one glass in front of Levi and sat in the chair opposite from the man, sipping his own juice. The raven looked at him with thinned eyes, offended. The following moment of silence was filled with jolts sparking back and forth between their vital waves enhancers.

“Brat.” Levi’s voice was more glacial than before, if possible. “Care to explain what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

 _Oh_. So that was what the others usually saw when dealing with Levi. Eren finally understood, but by now was almost immune to the stare –not as immune as Hanji, tho. But after the stunt his human had pulled that night, the young Shifter looked at him, expression as blank as the raven’s. “You didn’t have anything since yesterday evening and you already collapsed once. So I’m doing us all the favor of taking care of you, _sir_ , since it coincides with the success of the mission and our own wellbeing.”

Levi’s jaw tightened and he slit his eyes even more, seemingly ready to punch Eren in the face.

“There’s no coffee. Sorry.” Shrugged Eren with a strange expression, growing conscious of the others’ shocked stare. The brunet’s cheeks dusted in pink and despite the tone of his voice retained a bashful tone, his peacock eyes were lit with stubborn resolution.

Levi was about to speak again when the screen of the laptop resting in the center of the table flashed to life and a familiar face popped up.

The Captain rolled his eyes and reached for the glass of juice that Eren insistently offered him. “Killer Eyebrows, long time no see.” He greeted Erwin eyeing the orange liquid and finally deciding to drink it with a final death glare towards his Omega Titan.

 _“Captain.”_ Replied dryly Erwin, one of his massive eyebrows arching expressively. “ _I presume you must feel good enough if the first thing you do is test my patience._ ”

Levi sucked his teeth. “Yeah, you could say that. But tell me about you and your blond tribe. Tell me you found out what in the heavens happened for ruining our trip here.”  

Erwin snorted out from his nose. Behind him, Eren could see Armin and Historia working on their station, fingers quickly tapping on keyboards, voices hushed while they spoke into their own auricular. “ _We’re still working on the details but I can tell you that Mike came back a few hours ago with the man that asked us to undertake this mission. The same man that passed us most of the information. We questioned him for hours and from what he said we came to the conclusion that the dealers exchange we had to stop was a bait. To distract us from the real exchange and probably capture our own Titans. Our Shifters, to be precise.”_

At those words, Eren stiffened in his chair, head whipping towards the flat screen of the laptop. He didn’t look at Levi, because from the chip implanted in his neck, the boy could feel the icy rage that exuded from the raven.

“What?!” Petra brought a hand over her mouth.

“That… how did that scumbag know about the Shifters?” asked Gunther.

“ _This is one of the things we’re still trying to understand._ ” Said Commander Smith.

“It’s a secret from the media and civils, but Black Market dealers know about the existence of Shifters… even if they don’t understand fully what Shifters are, the fact that we found Eren because we intercepted an illegal cargo before it could be sold on the Black Market, tells us that they at least know that they’re very valuable.” Erd mused out loud.

Erwin Smith nodded from the other side of the screen. “ _Exactly. I trust that Hanji and Mike will be able to supply us with further information before the morning comes._ ” A small smile, all but out of happiness, stretched Erwin’s mouth. “ _But do not worry about this, we’ll take good care of our source. I’ll see to that.”_ If Levi was a lesser man, he’d have shivered. Legion Commander making such promises could freeze blood. He went on, _“What I ask of you is to go on with this mission, because even if last night events were only an excuse to lure us out and try to abduct one of our Shifters, we know that a real illegal trade’s going to take place tomorrow. Arlert will give you the specifics._ ” The blonde man saluted, fisting the right hand over his heart. “ _Good luck to you all._ ”

Levi smirked. “Tch. We don’t need luck. We’re _good_.”

The blonde Commander snorted and murmured something similar to “ _Asshole,_ ” before turning on his heels and leaving the connection open for Armin.

“ _Good evening, Sir._ ” The blond coconut began with a nod of his head and a small glance in the direction of Eren. The brunet grinned at his friend. “ _If you’re ready, I’d like to explain to you what we’re going to do in the next hours.”_

“Speak, kiddo, I’m tired of being cooped up in this dusty basement and I don’t even want to think what that crazy goggled bitch is doing at Legion without my supervision. That Commander of yours is a softy.” Conceded Levi, taking the final sip of his beverage. Eren was satisfied to have fed his human and tried to nudge the sandwich box towards Levi, but the raven ignored it. Small steps, Eren supposed and shrugged, giving Armin his full attention.

Armin chuckled. “ _Okay… After last night failed mission, support agents have been following the dealers’ tracks. They searched the port but found nothing. So we passed the night analyzing the radio frequencies used during the conflict and we found that all the directions were given to the Black Market dealers from a certain area in the inland. Our support squads searched the surroundings and as we speak, Queen Bee and our two bonded Shifters are on the move to verify if the area hides something that’s of our interest.”_

 _“Another problem we’re facing is that tomorrow there’s a popular manifestation in the city, that attracts a lot of people and tourism every year. From what we gathered, the trade will take place during the festivities, as a lot of ships and private jets are going to converge on the island. Obviously we have already searched through all the official requested permissions to land and dock on the island, but we didn’t find anything. Anyway, we think the Black Market dealers would take this chance to recover the cargo and flee before anyone realizes that an unauthorized jet has crossed the skies without permission._ ”

“Why are you talking about a jet?” asked Auruo, his brow furrowed giving the man his usual nasty expression. Marco and Jean exchanged a confused glare, then went back to watch the screen.

“ _Because we believe that they’ll use that to get the cargo away from the island, instead of a ship like we originally thought. After last night, they can’t risk to wander the port again, not with all the securities alerted after our incursion. And the only other way to leave this place is by air.”_

“Do we know when they’ll be taking off?” asked Petra.

“ _We are monitoring the air traffic of the area, but we believe that it’ll be during the morning, when people begin to converge for the manifestation._ ” Armin quickly tapped on his own keyboard and a map appeared on the laptop screen. “ _You see the bright dot? That’s the place. It’s situated in the middle of nothing. Well, there are fields: isolated enough to allow a small jet to land, but still near and easily reachable from the city. The dealers cannot risk a long journey with all the controls that are going to patrol the streets for the festivity._ ”

Levi put his elbows over the table and stretched his neck to better see the small map provided by Armin. “What were you saying about our boys?”

“ _They’re reaching the field any minute now, Captain. Only four individuals._ ” Said Armin, with a blue piercing look that told exactly _who_ the Commander had sent: Mikasa and Annie, with Reiner and Bert. “ _We needed a small contingent, quick and effective. They’ll took care of eventual sentries._ ”

Levi breathed a silent sigh and Eren knew that it was for Mikasa. Even if the brothers weren’t the most direct in their interactions, the brunet had learnt to read the two icy beauties and could tell that if something were to happen to Mikasa, the raven would be devastated.

“So what’s our task, now?” asked Eren and all the heads in the small room turned toward him.

“ _Exactly the same as before._ ” Replied Armin. “ _Highflyer will be in charge of the cargo. The Commander wants every single crumb of it. We have to analyze it, since this time the Black Market’s willing to do anything to ship it away._ ”

Eren felt the distinct prickle in his neck after Armin’s words, and instinctively peacock eyes turned to Levi. The raven was already watching the Shifter, held the stare for an intense moment, seemed like he wanted to speak, but averted his eyes and looked back at the laptop.

“ _The Spec Op Squad will be the bait once again. I’m sorry Captain, but you’re the only ones that-_ “

“Save it, kid.” Dismissed Levi with a flick of his wrist. “I know we’re the best, no need to apologize. If anything, it’d be your Captain America in charge to say sorry. But he’s right, we’ll take this because we can do it.”

Armin nodded after a few seconds of silence. “ _I’ve already faxed the basic directions for reaching the field out of town to your house hosts. All the other information will be passed through your hearing devices once the connection will be re-established. You need to move within two hours. I’m going to give you the coordinates of the place where cars will be waiting for you. As soon as Queen Bee arrives, we’ll send you the specifics of the place. We’ll know how to proceed when we know what the place is like._ ”

Levi nodded. “We’ll get ready, Arlert. Keep in touch.”

“ _Of course, Sir._ ” The blonde strategist saluted and cut the connection.

The blue aseptic light of the screen was gone and the basement remained alighted only by the yellow, sad light pending from the low ceiling. The soldiers weren’t looking at each other, but they all stood at the same time, minding to not make too much noise, since it was the dead of night and they were still hiding. They couldn’t risk to jeopardize their hosts and the safe house thanks to nosy neighbors.

 Without a word and with practiced actions, every soldier reassembled their own equipment, checking every part of it. Petra and Gunther checked their Titans’ conditions, Auruo and Erd assuring their bonded partner that they were alright. Marco stretched a hand and Jean passed him one of the handguns he took from the small weapons closet in the basement. He chose Marco’s favorite and handed him enough ammo. At least, he hoped it was enough. Jean hated to go on a mission blind, but right now they had no choice. The two toned guy hoped that Mikasa and the others could supply some useful information.

He huffed and his freckled partner nudged him in the arm. “Don’t worry. This is not the first time... You already guided us through worst situations. I know you can do this again.” He tried to reassure his friend.

Jean hummed, mouth pressed in a serious line. His mind went back to past missions and every risky situation he had faced since joining Legion. And the two-tone haired guy realized that every time he could count on Marco to speak the words he needed to hear. It was not the lack in self-esteem, but doubts submerged him every time he knew a life that was not his own, depended from his decisions.

Marco’s life more than others. That was far too precious to lose.

“…Jean?” called Marco again, softly creasing his eyebrows.

“I’m alright, ‘m right here man.”

“Just where you have to be.” Smiled Marco.

“Ehe.” Snorted Jean and averted his eyes. Every time those molasses eyes looked his way with that intense honesty and innocence, he knew that someday, inevitably, words will escape, things will be said and dynamics will change. When moments like this happened, the tawny eyed boy feared and hated Marco Bodt with all his being. Feared and hated the idea of losing it all. Feared and hated the way his heart expected that very chance to reach out and – _stop_. Stop that thoughts right now, because it really was not the right moment. Jean shook his head and looked around. “Speaking of being where you have to be… where’s Jaeger?”

Marco’s shoulders sagged a bit, like he too was expecting Jean to say something. Damn, Marco Bodt was too good at reading Jean as it was.

“I think I saw him following the Captain in the other room.” Said Gunther, who was securing a dagger to his belt. “They had their equipment there.”

And sure enough Eren had followed Levi in the room they awoke in. The raven was raiding the small room methodically, recovering any item he deemed useful for his gear.

After a few moments of hesitation, the Omega Shifter imitated him, going through his own weapons like Levi had taught him. Luckily, Eren was able to keep the knife the Captain had given him even after the fight. Its blade was still red and dirty, though, he had completely forgotten to clean it. The fact irrationally irritated him. Levi was influencing him too much, definitely. He huffed. At least Eren had the mind to not put it in the sheath, or now he’d have ruined both the knife and the leather case.

The brunet gripped the knife handle, trying to erase the sensation of the blade sinking into human flesh… the impression of hot, viscous blood dripping through his fingers. Eren swallowed, an acidic taste setting in his mouth, the weight of stolen lives crawling up his throat and burning behind his lids.

“Brat.” Eren whipped his head to the side, letting his distant eyes focus on the familiar figure standing beside, the warmth of its presence reaching his skin and starting to melt the frozen guilt that kept the brunet’s bones standing.

“Don’t give me that look, or I won’t be able to take you with me. I thought you didn’t want to be left behind?” said Levi in a hushed tone, too delicate for the man, too delicate for the moment.

“W-what kind of look?” Eren blinked owlishly, lost in his own mind.

“The look of a lost, guilty puppy.” Levi x-rayed him tight lipped, but seeing no response, huffed and pulled the knife from Eren’s loose grip. “Keep away from children.” He quipped, then took a clean cloth and proceeded to rub the blooded steel. “I can’t allow you to go out there with your head full of useless thoughts just to be fucking butchered. If you don’t speak to me now, I’ll send you back to Legion by kicking you with my ass dirty boots.”

Eren bristled, confused: why was Levi insulting him? And more importantly, why was he threatening to leave him behind? Eren didn’t want that, absolutely refused to think of being discarded again! This was his life now, this was what he had fought for and killed for mere hours before! He thought that Levi was on his side, that the man knew he was reliable and capable, to some extent… so why was he that angry?

The buzz coming from the vital waves enhancer told the Shifter what Levi wouldn’t ever speak: he was worried and so the waves coming from his human were soft, long and tentative, enveloping his senses almost like they wanted to protect him from whatever out there was going to hurt him.

The realization stunned the Shifter into silence.

“Tch, lazy bum. Not even able to keep his knife clean.” Levi swore under his breath, eyes intent and on the blade. Eren’s lips arched in a somber smile, thick eyebrows arched on his forehead.

“I’m sorry, Captain. It’s not… I’m- I think I’m ready to go back out there. Honestly, I’m _not_ okay and I don’t know when I will be, because tonight was… damn, it was a _fucking fricking living hell_!” sighed aloud the brunet. “I do not regret what I did, because I know that it was a matter of life and death and I’m still awkward about how I even managed to not throw up in that situation, let alone actually do something, but… I think that the weight of what I did is starting to catch up with me.” His shoulders sagged a bit.

Levi scrubbed the knife for a bit longer and when he looked at his Titan, he returned the blade. “Don’t ever be ashamed of _this_. It’s human. _You’re_ human, Jaeger, don’t ever doubt it. I won’t say that all this will get better or that all those deaths don’t matter, because that would be a shitty lie. We all have to sacrifice something, to go on and not lose our sanity. Ourselves. Do you regret killing those men and making it back with Bodt and Kirschtein?”

“No Sir, not at all.” Was the immediate response. And yet emerald eyes held so much unspoken grief and pain.

Levi nodded. “If you remain in Legion long enough, you’ll come to term with it. With this dark part of yours that keeps pushing you forward, keeps you alive even if your comrades fall. The world consider it selfish and condemn it, but if it’s useful to survive, use it. Use everything you got.” Grunted and turned to take from the headboard of the small bed his dirty jacket. The raven grimaced in disgust but wore it nonetheless. “Make it so you live with no regrets.” He sniffed, chin raised in slight defiance “I know I’ll try.”

Eren didn’t fully comprehend what Levi said, or how it could help him with his guilty trip, but understood that it was a focal point in coming to know the man better. He had to remind himself to go back on this thought later. For now, he grinned and took the blade that Levi had cleaned, sheathing it in his belt.

The brunet took a deep breath and somehow he felt himself again, master of his own skin. “Okay.” Said Eren and bumped the raven’s side with his hip. “But I fear you’ll have to explain it to me again, because you weren’t exactly clear-“

“Listen, you shit.” Levi’s left hand snaked out and fisted in Eren’s shirt, pulling the boy to his height, almost nose to nose. “If you pull some shit during this mission and end up killed, I swear I’ll make you come back from the netherworld and, you a zombie or a demon I don’t even care, Hanji will take care of it, I’ll bond you again and make sure you spend the rest of your fucking life like my door mat, tied and gagged and at a fucking leash so that you won’t be able to get out my sight again. Am I clear, Jaeger?”

Eren didn’t listen to a word that came from that sinful mouth. Couldn’t, really. And how could he, when the angry, little, ruffled Captain was only a few inches away from him, getting the younger drunk with his breath puffing over his own lips and a storm raging in his eyes, alight with the embers of a hidden fire, black strands of hair tickling his own skin.

The poor Omega Shifter mewled at the mention of curling against his human, claimed and tied and what the fuck was the fuzzy tremor that made his legs into jelly?! Why was Levi sneering? And why did Eren wanted to be leashed to that shorty bastard?!

“Answer me, brat.” Hissed Levi again, lost in his possessive and worried spree.

Feeling cornered Eren gulped, trying to suppress the urge to taste that vulgar mouth again. Nodded slowly and felt the grip under his jugular tighten “I- Is that an order?”

“It. Fucking. Is.” Was the answer. “Come back to me. In one piece.” The last words were whispered in a secret attempt of begging. Or praying.

And whatever Eren’s resolve was, it crumbled away in an instant, forcing the boy to surge forward and take Levi’s head into his own hands. Slid the pads of his fingers against the itchy scalp of the raven’s undercut and tugged him towards his open and hungry mouth.

The brunet moaned as the shock wave hit him: since when _kissing_ Levi was something that his body _craved_? Eren grunted in his throat, the sound lost into his human’s mouth. Peacock eyes were squeezed against the hot sensations incinerating him, burning his lungs with want. It was like trying to look at the sun. Or breathing it.

Eren’s lips moved over Levi’s thin ones, and he felt the raven instinctively grab his wrists, not to push him away, but to keep the brunet in place. The Captain inspired harshly through his nose and Eren couldn’t have enough, so he gently tilted Levi’s head back without interrupting the kiss. The Omega Shifter finally felt full again, light buzzes quaking his nerves and lighting him alive.

When Eren dared to pass his tongue over Levi’s lips, the shorter man shivered against the brunet and groaned. In that moment, the Shifter wanted to survive at all costs, he absolutely had to make Levi groan again in that way. The Shifter boy pressed himself against Levi’s hard body, their chest coming in contact and brushing every time they panted.

Then someone knocked at their door. “Captain? We’re ready to go.” Auruo’s voice came from the other room.

Levi grunted again, inhaled Eren’s stolen breath and the spell connecting them lifted. The brunet tried to follow him while the Captain distanced their bodies, holding onto the shorter man’s lower lip.

“We’re-“ Levi cleared his voice, his eyes still closed, strong fingers curled around his Shifter’s wrists. “We’re good, too.” When he opened his eyes, the mercury in his irises was all but cool. Levi regained his breath before Eren, but was still shocked by the waves clawing through the chip, fogging his brain but strangely enough, they reinvigorated his tired body.

Eren was in worst condition, all droopy eyes and rosy cheeks, plump lips glistening with saliva. He was looking at Levi like the beast looks at his last meal and slid the tip of his tongue over his own upper lip.

Levi tightened the grip on Eren’s wrists to keep _himself_ in place. That was not the moment nor the place for this kind of things and yet the call of the bond was stronger than ever. “I think that this is enough to keep us in check for now.” He reluctantly let go of Eren’s hands, already missing the feeling of the Shifter’s pulse under his digits. “Come on, kid, I hate being late.”

Eren nodded and groggily followed Levi. With every step the tanned guy regained lucidity and even his legs didn’t feel like wooden stick anymore. He felt full again, a stuffed toy that finally had a skeleton. At the beginning, when Hanji had explained what the bond with Levi meant, Eren had not fully understood. It was not possible.

But after what happened, things had started to consume his mind and body and for a while the Shifter didn’t know if he could stand it. Until now, he only had himself. But tonight, all it took was time with Levi, exchange words with him, no empty promises to resolve everything, no need to explain, no fear of being misunderstood. Because Levi knew that sometimes you can’t promise anything and sometimes you can’t explain. Levi knew because he felt the same things Eren’s felt.

Tonight they had needed each other in the unique way a Titan and his bonded human would need. No one could ever replace Eren to Levi. Tonight they were both ivy and trunk, standing against each other to become stronger. And stronger Eren felt when he passed the door of the safe house, the undercover agents guarding it for Legion, waving in the night and hoping that all of them would make it back.


	9. Muddy Waters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't say sorry enough for the delay. This chapter gave me the most horrible block.  
> Thanks to all of you who waited on this patiently <3

Eren breathed the humid, brackish air of the late night –or early morning, letting it cool his lungs and mind. The Shifter flexed his gloved hands and looked at Marco and Jean, sitting with him in the car they had been directed to by Historia. Communications were re-established and the Blondies were guiding the soldiers to the gathering point. They had directed each squad to the hidden jeeps that now were escorting them out the city, towards the place where their comrades awaited.

The tanned boy was tired, but took comfort in the faint buzz coming from the chip in his neck. Since Captain Ackerman had nodded him a “Bring your ass back to me, kid” with an unfathomable smirk, while hopping in his own car, Eren had secretly felt relieved by the connection.

“Queen Bee and Yankee are already on the spot,” whispered Marco, a hand over the ear with the auricular. The freckled guy closed his eyes and concentrated on the exchange between HQ and the other squads. For now they were all on line, since they needed as much information as possible to plan the attack, but when the action spiked, all the communications past through Armin and Historia, who were to oversee everything and prevent disturbance on the line due to all the reports coming at once.

“ _Queen Bee to Blondies. We’ve checked the perimeter. It seems to be too alive to be a lost hangar in the countryside. We’ll try to go near it and see what’s happening. It’s buzzing with men, no lights and I don’t like it,”_ cracked Mikasa’s voice through the auricular.

 _“Yankee here. We’re trying to position ourselves but there’s too much movement around. If last night we thought the port was crowded, we’re in a fucking Woodstock here,”_ Sasha reported in a hurried whisper. _“We’ll cover Queen Bee from the eastern side._ ”

 _“Go and try to see what’s happening inside, Yankee, the images from the satellite don’t tell us much. Queen Bee and Titans, we need all the visual you can get us,”_ Commander Smith’s voice was distant and cool as always, while coordinating every piece on the chessboard. _“Do not engage until the others arrive, but be sure to slim down their sentries.”_

A chorus of “ _Yes, Sir!_ ” resounded from the little device and Marco relayed to Jean and Eren what was happening.

“We’re almost there,” said the man driving their jeep. The three young men were huddled in the back, not wanting to attract too much attention, since they were wearing their gear.

“Okay,” replied Jean and looked at his watch, explaining to his teammates the direction they had to take to reach the others. Every squad had to be left on a different spot to not attract unwanted attention and to explore more of the surroundings. The jeep the trio was on proceeded at a steady pace, as discretely as possible, taking a lot of turns to discourage anyone who’d wanted to follow them.

Meanwhile, the conversation between the squads and the HQ went on: Mikasa and Annie were the nearest to the front of the hangar and they were describing the coming and going of men, armed to their teeth. _“The hangar is as old as you can imagine. It was abandoned till recently, all metal and rust, half of the front door is missing. We can’t see much, though. Thanks god the wheat all around is high and allows some shelter. They’re being smart and have only a few torches to light the place. The smell of gasoline is overwhelming. Annie thinks they’re readying whatever vehicle they have inside, there are parts of a small propeller outside._ ”

Armin’s voice crackled in Marco’s earpiece, interrupting the ravenette. _“Affirmative. From the satellite we know there’s something about the size of a small airplane… Squad Leader Zacharius says it’s a Bonanza G36, but we cannot bet on his instincts-“_ Mike’s voice corrected him from the background “ _Oh, yeah- nose, not instinct, I’m sorry Sir. We can estimate their number… At least twenty men are guarding the perimeter and twice their number is working around something big in the center of the hangar. Supposedly, the plane. There’s something more on the satellite… but I can’t understand what is.”_

 _“We can,” s_ aid Sasha, _“And oh, man. You won’t like it, Sir. Not one bit,"_   the girl sounded a little breathless, sounds of rustling leaves on her part. _“We’ve cleaned the east side of the hangar, hopefully we have a few more minutes before they realize some guards are missing. We climbed on a tree and we can see something from the missing panes of the ceiling. They’re fixing the cargo on the plane, and… it’s not only some component. I don’t see anything small as vital waves enhancers or the like, unless they had already put it in the plane. The thing they’re carrying, tho, it’s like… a corpse rolled into an old rag. It’s being kept together by a lot of leather straps.”_

Marco had followed Jean and Eren and hopped off the car, hiding into the high grass of the field they were dropped by. The driver was already gone, leaving the three alone with the crickets and their feeble melody. Three heavy souls under the ignorant sky, its electric blue fading into pitch black at the zenith, sprinkled with mute, bold stars. Eren was a little breathless, if that was due to the beauty of the exotic sky or the thought of what lie in front of them, he couldn’t tell. Maybe a mix of the two. Maybe he only craved the concrete physicality of the feeble presence alive in the chip of his neck to anchor him. To anchor his thoughts, stop them from wandering towards that infinite canopy above… it’s strange how you notice things in the less probable of the moments…but maybe, Eren thought with bitterness, it’s because time was ticking and he didn’t know what awaited them all, if he would ever see that same sky again. And so, in these moments, nature awoke in him a heart, every nerve, every desire for the sole purpose to keep him going. Eren shivered with the life igniting him from the inside: he had always known he had a certain drive, a lot of people called it stubbornness, but now that trait was the thing that got him stand his ground. He was grateful for it and shook his head minutely, coming back from the inside of his mind, as the scent of grass and humid ground hit his nose.

Marco stopped and listened closely before passing the news.

From the other side of the earpiece, there was only silence. The freckled soldier updated Jean and Eren, who looked at each other, confused.

 _“What the fuck do you mean? They’re trying to smuggle a dead man outta the country and risk all their lives for that?! Keeping up all this circus for a shitty thing like a corpse you can easily dissolve in a tub full of acid?!”_ Levi spoke for everyone.

 _“Not a corpse,”_ Historia’s and Sasha’s voices overlapped through the metallic buzz of the communication.

Silence again, then Historia explained. “ _The images we receive are different from the ones we usually identify a corpse with. By now we’re able to recognize the signal of the dead, Sir,”_ her usually soft voice was bitter.

Sasha said, _“And I recognize the thing they wrapped the body in. We already saw it enough times to recognize how smugglers try to conserve_ them _. At the lab, Hanji’s minions call it in a strange way… what is it Con?”_ a moment of silence, where Connie probably supplied the information. _“Ah, yeah, they call it ‘Veil’._ ”

The word was enough to cause a few gasps from the soldiers listening and a cuss from Levi.

Marco and the others were closing in, slowly crawling in the high grass, but they couldn’t see the low building yet. They could only follow Jean’s directions and hope to join their comrades soon –or find Levi lost in the big ass wheat, snickered Jean and Eren hit him on his arm, grinning nonetheless. He was nervous, not knowing what they were up against, but since they were going on with the plan, he thought that their target was confirmed. And when Erwin spoke again, Marco gave the other two a recap, his molasses eyes fixing on the brunet. “There’s a Titan there. Maybe a Shifter like Eren.”  
Jean and Eren stopped and crawled toward Marco, shocked about the whispered news. “Yankee saw something resembling a _Veil_.”

“Fuck!” spat Jean, all mirth gone from his traits, and looked into the night in front of him, jaw clenching nervously.

Eren looked from him to Marco. “What does it mean? Why do you think there’s a Shifter? And what the hell is a Veil?”

“A _Veil_ ,” explained Jean in hushed tones, passing a hand in his hair “is a mean to transport a Shifter. It’s a sort of… of material, I don’t know, resembling a thick gauze soaked with a peculiar liquid –similar to the one Hanji uses with Bert and Reiner, that prevents the Shifter’s decay. Or at least, a Veil slows it down,” tawny eyes were fixed in peacock ones “We found you in a Veil, too.”

The image of a pale and ragged Eren resting lifeless and wrapped in that white-yellowish gauze…eyes heavily closed in their sockets, fingers black with the lack of circulation and veins too visible under paper thin skin, the smell of rotting flesh acidic in the air: the signs of the decay were evident and still burned in Jean’s and Marco’s memories. The two boys were in the mission during which the Omega Shifter was recovered.

Eren swallowed, uneasy. “I didn’t think there were… more like me. Like us.”

“Ehe. Neither did we, yet our base is bursting with your kind. But, hey!, rejoice: if we recover this one, you won’t be the newbie anymore,” Jean said, each word dripping with sarcasm. “This mess up our work a damn lot,” he looked at Marco, who was concentrated on his earpiece once again. The freckled boy nodded once and Jean started to walk-crawl forward again.

Eren followed him, mind twirling between a number of sceneries. Jean was thinking aloud, voicing the Titan’s doubts. “If that‘s really a Shifter, those men will protect the cargo with all their might. Whoever is paying them must be filthy rich. Shifters are fucking invaluable. They’ll surely engage in a fight. Shit!” The tanned boy didn’t like where all this was going, but was determined to make sure that the poor bastard that shared the same fate of being turned into a Titan, would be taken to Legion. Eren didn’t want to think what could have happened to him if Legion hadn’t find him. What could have happened if he ended up prisoner of some shady organization, enslaved and bonded to a filthy pig. He shivered and wasn’t able to suppress the spark of worry that shot through the chip. Damn, Levi must have felt it and surely would ask about what had stirred it.

Eren would have to deal with this later, because Marco was speaking again. “They confirmed it. We have to retrieve the cargo – the Shifter, at all costs. Commander Smith said to maintain the positions. We’re going for the Shifter. Armin said that the hangar has another entrance. It’s on the roof, with an old and rudimental lift. Just a moving square of wood and metal, in truth, that we can use to drop down. Queen Bee and Yankee are going to attack from there and enter the hangar, as soon as the Spec Op Squad arrives. They’ll take the front and start the dances.”

“It’s a shitty plan!” Hissed Jean, stopping once again and curling his hands around Marco’s arms, veins protruding along his strong and lightly sweaty forearms. “How can we recover the cargo in such a mess?! We’re going to be caught in the middle of the fire!”

“I _know_ the risks, Jean, but these are our orders! The risk that they destroy the cargo as the attack starts is too high, we cannot let them do it!” replied Marco. He froze and shot a hand over his ear. “Shush!”

“ _Queen Bee to Blondies. We’re in position,_ ” Mikasa’s voice cut through the silence.

“ _Yankee waiting, too,_ ” Sasha replied in a whisper. “ _We can’t see the front._ ”

“ _Titans here. We took down ten of their sentinels. In position in three minutes.,_ Bert updated.

“Highflyer reaching the position in five. We’ll wait the right moment to move for the cargo,” Marco intervened.

“ _Captain,_ ” Erwin’s voice interrupted the communications, “ _Are you guys ready?”_

“ _We are,”_ came the clipped reply from Levi, “ _Just give us the fucking order and let’s begin. I need a shower, for chrissake.”_

Erwin Smith chuckled, a low sound coming from the throat. _“Then bring me that precious cargo. And try to not kill every one. I want prisoners, this time. Anyone you can get. Your four-eyed friend is waiting for them.”_

Levi huffed, _“Tell the glassed freak I’ll bring souvenirs.”_

 _“Blondies to every team: Yankee, Queen Bee and Titans on the roof. We want you to split and position the fastest of you on the ceiling girders. Be ready to take down the men inside. Yankee, you two are the most skilled snipers: use the old lift to get inside and distract the rest. Buy time to get the others positioned. Cover Queen Bee’s and Titans’ backs,”_ Armin’s voice was somber and tight as he explained the plan. _“Special Op Squad will take care of the men outside. Highflyer, you’ll follow Captain Ackerman’s squad, covering them if needed but as soon as they open the way, go secure the cargo. Once every team has cleaned their own area, converge to Highflyer. If the cargo is secured, support the Spec Op Squad.”_

Jean guided Eren and Marco through the field of high grass and wheat, changing trajectory once in a while to take down the remainder sentinels. Even in the dark, Jean’s aim was perfect and with clean shots, muffled by his silencer, they were able to move forward. Eren was a bit surprised, but didn’t have the time to comment on it, because Marco made another sign with his hand and proclaimed, “The Spec Op Squad has arrived.”

Jean nodded “Then let’s go and just… end this.”

Eren raised his head and saw the low silhouette of the hangar rising from the dark in front of them. He reached for his knife, unsheathing it, recognizing the soft hiss of the blade against its leather case, knowing all too well that he couldn’t match Jean with a gun. Not right now. He’d only risk to shoot at one of his comrades with his current skills and under such conditions – in the middle of a fight and with no light.

Jean glanced at the brunet Shifter, looked like he wanted to comment about his choice of weapon, but Marco shook his head minutely. The two-toned haired guy fixed the eyes on the freckled boy, studying him for long seconds.

“It’s started,” whispered Marco, lifting the safety catch of his handgun. And with that, lights and voices erupted from the night all around them, like thunder follows the eerie silence of lightening.

Eren exhaled from his mouth, shook his head and crouched into position, knife ready in front of him. His glove squeaked as he tightened the grip around the knife. A heartbeat, where he called for all his remaining energies, all his lucidity. A light pressure of his right leg muscles, the sensation of his boot sinking into the mud and then he was running towards the hangar, following Jean and Marco, bent low into the grass. By now, the watchmen patrolling their side of the field had been eliminated, but the tanned boy could already hear the rackus caused by Levi and his squad.

Flashes of light broke the veil of the greyish night, the sky on the east clearing to a pale dawn. The first clash came to the Omega Shifter like a brick in the face, hard and with no warning. Every nerve in the tanned Titan was alight, sensing danger and death: Eren forced his way through the first enemy and through the second, relying on the mechanical motions Levi had ingrained in his head, spiraling around them and cutting their joints to prevent the men to move again. He ducked when one of the men guarding the hangar, double his size, aimed in his direction with something similar to an ingram, just in time before fire erupted from the black mouth of the weapon. The Shifter felt something hitting his left leg in a couple of points but adrenaline and fear pumped his veins, so much so he didn’t stop, but growled aggressively showing his teeth and threw his blade towards the man’s throat. The knife pierced his trachea, and the man collapsed on himself like an empty bag, gurgling and spitting red life from his mouth. Suddenly disarmed, Eren stood from the ground where he had fallen and sprinted towards his victim, retrieving his knife with a squelching sound and hate behind grinding teeth.

Eren was already moving, scanning the surroundings: men were already on the ground, some wore the telltale uniform of Legion. Something clenched with hot, iron claws in his chest and his arms moved faster: he swiped every single obstacle he encountered, even if they weren’t much, thanks to Jean, Marco and the Spec Op Squad cleaning their path.

_…Levi._

Eren knew that Levi was fine, but seeing how many were falling around him, even if he was doing a great job at tuning out the screams and the cries for mercy, the shots and the gurgling of blood and insides spilled on the dirt… he could not suppress the worry for his bonded human. He really hoped he’d still have one when all of this ended.

So the Omega Shifter clenched his teeth and buried his knife deeper into a man’s shoulder, took three, four fast steps and knocked down another one who was giving him his back and aiming into Jean’s direction. To be sure, Eren crouched, vaguely feeling the air over his head shift - maybe a stray bullet, maybe it was his imagination, and changed the grip on his knife, imitating Levi’s back-hold. With a clean strike he cut the man’s Achilles. Levi had taught him how to pull the move blindfolded. The man wouldn’t die, but surely fainted from the pain after a monstrous scream. And Eren was up and running again, skidding on the blood that drenched the ground. Beside him were Jean and Marco, who was screaming something into the auricular microphone. Jean was occupied in covering their asses.

Around Eren, the Special Operation Squad was tearing down the mercenaries forces, scaring to surrender the ones not ready to die for the cause and bending with force the ones resisting. They didn’t encounter as much opposition as they feared, thanks to Sasha and Connie who decimated the mercenaries from the strange square-shaped lift that had been lowered a few feet in the center of the hangar. From that platform and through the ceiling girders Reiner, Bertholt, Annie and Mikasa had come down to close into a grip the enemies.

Blood pumped in Eren’s ears, blood covered his arms and maybe even his face, since the last kill hadn’t been as clean as the others – he’d have to explain to Levi how he was so distracted as to let one of the smugglers took him by surprise. The brunet had reacted violently, shaken by a strong jolt from the chip. He cut the man’s throat like a butcher. A fucking disaster.

“Come on, Eren!” shouted Jean, out of breath. They had entered the hangar and were now running against the walls to reach the small airplane in the middle of the building. Around it, a lot of men were feverishly working around some boxes, while others were occupied in shooting against Legion soldiers or dying.

“You think you can shoot from here?” asked Marco, reloading his gun. The freckled boy, always smiling and gentle, was now focused and his molasses eyes were hard. Eren was amazed –and a little scared, at how special Marco Bodt was, for having seen this hell countless times and still being able to be the nicest person on earth. But briefly, because said freckled saint transformed once again in a killing machine and shot a series of bullets in front of himself, decimating the group of people separating the three soldiers from their target.

Eren’s nose filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood and he couldn’t stop from falling on his knees and retching. Once the acidic content of his stomach was gone, the Shifter felt slightly better, even if a part of his mind was aware of Jean profusely swearing on the background, saying that he was a useless damsel in distress. His mouth tasted like shit, so Eren spat on the ground and stood again, focus returning thanks to a jolt from the chip, stronger than all the other spikes he had received till now.

“Fuck, that’s fucking disgusting,” he sheathed his knife and grasped his own gun: now he was kneeling beside Marco behind a little mountain of debris, with Jean a couple of feet on their left. The Shifter took aim and started to empty his ammo.

****

Mikasa hid behind Annie to recharge her gun. Since their attack begun, the number of men going down under their shots was increasing but something felt off. She was regaining her breath after all the running, and trying to save your life using the small space of a roof girder wasn’t exactly a piece of cake.

Yet the ravenette and her blonde Shifter weren’t all that fazed. Crouched behind the blonde girl, Mikasa could feel Annie’s back move against the force of each hit that she fired.

Annie said, “They don’t fall.”

“You have that impression, too?”

“Sasha’s stopped firing. She’s doing stupid faces, too,” and of course when Mikasa raised her eyes, saw the brunette sniper wildly shaking her head towards them, then passing a hand on her throat in the universal sign of death and shaking her head again.

The ravenette blinked twice, ignoring the fires that her comrades and the resisting smugglers were still exchanging. “Titans,” Annie absorbed a hit with her right arm and grit her teeth. She didn’t move, since she was protecting her bonded human. Mikasa grunted, feeling the pain through the bond.

“They’re modified Titans, that’s why we can’t put them down with guns,” Mikasa put her hand over the earpiece “Queen Bee to Titans. Follow me. Ready with the knives.”

“ _Roger,_ ” Bertholt replied and seconds later he and Reiner were running toward the platform on which Sasha and Connie were trying to hold off the smugglers. The two Shifters jumped from the lift and landed with a heavy thud on the ground of the hangar, friend fire covering the hideous sound of shuttering bones and protecting them as they recovered from the high jump, white smoke wrapping their ankles and legs.

“You think you can jump?” asked Mikasa, securing her gun to the hostler.

Annie nodded, dashed along the girder they were perched on and just like the two Titans before, jumped near Sasha and pivoted gracefully to the ground into Bertl’s arms, in the same instant in which Mikasa ended her fall safely into Reiner’s.

As soon as the four of them were on the ground and free to fight again, they switched to knives, aiming to their enemies’ necks: if you wanted to incapacitate a modified Titan, Hanji had said since their first day in Legion, you have to cut the nape in a precise point and with enough depth, to reach and destroy the chip. Without as much as a glance, the four soldiers dashed and sliced and put down any modified Titan they could, the three Shifters taking the most damage trying to protect Mikasa, the only human in that mayhem. When Sasha missed a target, Annie sucked her teeth and made a bee-line for the Titan that was trying to escape, effectively neutralizing him. She glared at the sniper girl but said nothing, even when Sasha hollered a “Thank you!” over the rackus.

 _“Blondies to every squad,”_ Armin’s voice erupted from the mayhem around them through the auricular “ _Queen Bee and Titans are engaging the enemies from the ground. Yankee reports that some of the men guarding the cargo are modified Titans. They’ll keep firing anyway from the platform to slow them down. The Spec Op Squad is advancing but we are short of few men. Support teams are arriving in five. What’s your situation Highflyer?_ ”

Mikasa was pivoting from one kill to the next with the same grace as her brother, quick like a thought and precise like a bullet. With years of experience and back upped by her Shifter, Reiner and Bert, she allowed a glance towards her right, where the little plane was, now only a few men remained to defend it. Beyond the plane, she could see Eren and Marco firing at the last men remaining, while Jean was trying to gain space to advance towards the plane.

In front of her, though, Mikasa saw her brother and his squad still trying to keep the attention of the men guarding the front doors of the hangar, to disperse their forces and allow Legion soldiers that were inside to wipe out the rest of the enemies. Levi’s men had the most annoying task: to push just the right amount and then pull back to make the opponents believe they were reaching some results, when all they were doing, was dancing in the palm of Captain Levi Ackerman.

By the music played by Commander Erwin Smith, obviously.

The ravenette smirked even as she blocked a side kick with her arm, losing a bit of her ground, but soon regaining it all with a quick series of punches in the kidney of the man who tried to knock her down. Annie was on said man in a matter of seconds, finishing him neatly.

“ _We’re almost at the cargo,_ ” replied Marco through the connection “ _Queen Bee and Titans are freeing the wrong side of the plane. We can’t still reach the target._ ”

“Oh, sorry if we are doing something wrong, princess!” snorted Reiner somewhere near her, while Bertholdt grunted a “ _We’re doing our best here!_ ” while disarming another man.

Annie tch-ed, very Ackerman-ly and spun around another modified Titan, carving his nape and destructing the chip, rendering him armless. She didn’t stop her run, but staggered when a stray bullet hit her calf and thigh, “Motherfucker!” she cried, but grinned satisfied when saw that Mikasa had fallen over the man who shot like a hawk, unstoppable and very, _very_ angry. Annie ducked and, thanks to her speed, she was able to skid under the wing of the little plane. From that favorable spot, the Beta Shifter grabbed her gun and screaming to the Highflyer team a “Get down, idiots!”, she shot the men around the plane aiming at their knees. They fell like puppets.

Eren and Marco jumped from behind the debris they were using as shield, charging the smugglers shot by Annie, the brunet ready with his knife: he didn’t possess the Ackermans’ touch, but the boy was efficient.

Marco didn’t lose time and with Annie climbed the plane, towards the precious cargo. Two men remained on the aircraft and they didn’t wait to shot the young Legion soldier. Marco screamed and took a couple of bullets in the center of his sternum, the rebound strong enough to make him lose balance. Luckily, the freckled soldier was wearing his bulletproof uniform. Connie, ever alert, shot precisely to the man who hurt Marco and Eren was quick to jump on the plane wing and take him down.

“Marco! Guys, everything alright?” Jean advanced running, face and stride tired, always covering their backs and recharging his gun with the last ammunitions he had on himself, now helped by Reiner and Bertl too. Mikasa came standing by their side, breathing hard.

“Blondies, Queen Bee here. We’re with Highflyer and Titans. We got the cargo,” she said into the auricular. Annie and Eren, standing on each wing of the plane, threw on the ground the last two corpses.

“ _Good work, teams,_ ” Commander Smith’s voice buzzed from the earpiece. “ _Titans and Queen Bee, I need you to go and help the Spec Op Squad in cleaning the entrance. They’re waiting for your signal to wrap up the things. You got other three squads of support reaching your point in a few. Now tell me if there really is an unknown Shifter._ ”

On the background, the young soldiers could still hear screams and shooting. Luckily for them, though, no one had realized that the smugglers inside the hangar had all been terminated. The Spec Op Squad was still fighting and Eren’s eyes were trained towards that direction, restless. The brunet was fighting the instincts telling him to leave everyone, take his knife with fresh blood still dripping from the blade and run to find his human. Find Levi and make sure he was fine and safe and away from the conflict. A ridiculous thought, for a man who had lived in this sort of hell for the greater part of his life. But the signals coming from Eren’s vital waves enhancer were signals of exhaustion and weariness, of worry and strong tenacity. Eren’s Levi was fucking brave and Legion’s strongest, but he was only human. He remembered what had just happened to Marco and thought that maybe, just maybe, he was still useful here. Thought that he could trust Levi, Petra, Auruo and the others. He would stay here with his squad and finish the work he was there for. He would see Levi a little later and he’d make him damn proud.

“Roger,” Mikasa thinned her lips and looked at Annie. The Shifter was already healing, fine threads of white smoke coming out from a number of injuries on her legs, arms and one on the side of her neck. The ravenette close the distance and put a hand over Annie’s bloody throat. “Can you still move?”

“Of course I can,” replied the blonde Shifter, swatting her bonded human’s hand away. “Think for yourself.”

“Bitchy!” said Reiner and started to run over Captain Ackerman’s position, Mikasa, Annie and Bertl in tow.

Jean signaled Connie and Sasha to come down from their position on the lift and come help them to recover the cargo and secure the area. Not that was really necessary… not after Reiner and Bertl had literally chopped their enemies, pieces of fingers here and there, remainders of insides scattered around amidst blood that made the floor slippery. “For fuck’s sake, I swear, you Shifters are animals…” muttered the two toned haired guy, looking around and kicking away any stray gun from his dead owner.

“Whoa, guys!” Sasha hollered once she and Connie joined them “That was _sick_! I thought I was seeing Hostel 2! Very well done, my babies made mama so proud!” the girl twirled and squeezed fondly Jean’s cheeks. He tried to push her away with zero success.

“Sash, help Jean while I help Marco and the bloody beast there…” slurred a very tired Connie, giving his partner his rifle. He got a stinky glare from a blood dripping Eren.

“ _A-hem… Sasha, we’re still online,_ ” Historia’s voice came from Sasha’s auricular (she was trying so hard to maintain a straight tone, but on the background was clearly audible a cackling Ymir) “ _The Commander is waiting._ ”

“Ah-oh! Yes, of course!” the brunette sniper sank her head between her shoulders and began to work.

Marco took things in his hands once again, still massaging his sternum and looking at the cargo, “Highflyer here. I’m inspecting the cargo and I confirm that we got a lot of devices for modified Titans, some parts I don’t recognize. About ten vital waves enhancer. And here…” Marco climbed over the wing of the plane on which Eren was standing. “On the passenger seat they placed the Shifter.”

“ _What are the Shifter’s conditions?_ ” asked Armin.

“Bad,” replied Marco gesturing Eren to help him with the straps keeping the gauzes around the body “the Veil is almost dry, the smell is…” he coughed “terrible. I fear it’s deteriorating very quickly!”

“What are we going to do?” asked Eren, nose curled due to the heavy smell of rotting meat. He looked at the straps around the Shifter, and saw a greenish liquid festering from underneath. The same liquid was oozing at the feet of the creature, pooling there. Eren supposed it wasn’t a good sign. Fear for the motionless creature crept in his belly. “It’s fucking decomposing, Marco… This thing, it’s… dead. It’s fucking dead.”

“Fuck!” Connie swore from aside, spitting on the ground.

“We cannot be certain-“ said the freckled boy.

“ _Soldier Bodt, Jaeger, remove the Veil and retrieve at least the vital waves enhancer,_ ” Commanded Erwin, “ _If it’s already rotting it’s useless. We’ve already seen our fair share of failed Shifter._ ”

Eren and Marco shared a quick look and swallowed the bile in their throat “Yes, Sir.”

So while Jean and Sasha collected all the small pieces from the plane, Marco and Eren went on with their disturbing task. The brunet Shifter cut the leather straps that enveloped the upper part of the Shifter’s body freeing the Veil, that was folded accurately by Marco’s trembling hands. In his molasses bambi eyes, was visible a profound sadness, the knowledge of having failed to save a life. The knowledge that it could have been one of his other comrades… Ymir, Reiner, Annie… Eren himself, now fierce and strong in front of him.

And then sadness became a horrible, churning feeling, a mix of nausea and guilt, because under the Veil was a teenage girl with brown, curly hair, features still delicate even if only a skull remained of her face, bones still thin… because that’s what remained of her: skin pulled sickeningly tight around smoking bones, the scorching heat of the healing process cooking her own flesh, instead of curing it. Because without a human to stabilize the process, the Shifters’ powers were too great even for themselves.

Eren brought an arm over his mouth, covering it from the smell and the hot fumes with his forearm. He averted his eyes, but ended up fixing his stare over the greenish sewage at the feet of the Shifter girl. Wrong choice.

Marco found his voice first and, always keeping his look over the little girl, spoke through the earpiece “Commander Smith, Sir… it’s a g-girl. A young girl. Maybe thirteen, maybe ten, I can’t be sure at this point, she’s… in very bad shape,” he said with the sweetest voice.

Jean heard him and stopped his work. Swallowed the heavy lump that had taken residence in his throat. He hurt for the young Shifter girl, because she didn’t deserve any of that shit: she couldn’t grow up, hadn’t had a chance to live, neither like a Shifter. He hurt for Eren, because of course the stupid Jaeger brat was seeing himself in the little Shifter. But most of all, he hurt for Marco, because the freckled boy really didn’t need to see this abomination, too.

“Marco…” Sasha pleaded, putting her hand on her friend’s ankle, “just… just interrupt the connection of the vital waver enhancer. Let’s stop it.”

A few seconds of silence, then “ _Do as Braus said,_ ” Erwin Smith’s order came with cold detachment.

Marco nodded and then Eren, too. The brunet passed his knife to Marco, who was the nearest to the Shifter girl’s neck. He breathed deep despite the foul smell and braced himself to extract the chip from her nape. He pushed the point of the knife into tender, rotting flesh that didn’t pose any resistance and sealed around the blade once again.

And then Marco screamed.

Screamed in endless pain, screamed for the loss of the little girl’s life and for the pain of getting invested by a jet of scorching steam, miasma erupting from the injury on the Shifter girl’s neck and burning Marco’s clothes, his skin and tendons, incinerating his bones, deforming the right side of his face, liquefying his eyes.

“Marco!” Jean screamed from the top of his lungs, desperate to reach his friend, Connie right behind him.

But Eren was the nearest of them all and like an ancient instinct, he felt compelled to throw his hand over Marco’s and try to separate him from the Shifter girl, that was rapidly dissolving in her own steam, her once plump lips a terrible smile of death and nightmares. Eren gritted his teeth and closed his eyes against the blistering heat, already feeling his own flesh starting to burn.

Maybe he screamed too, he couldn’t be sure. But he was sure to find Marco’s hand and unclench his incinerated fingers from the knife. He probably felt Marco falling beside him, or maybe Kirschtein was able to pull him away. Eren’s thoughts were a mess, the only way to turn back to normal was to stop the heat. He had to extract the chip from the Shifter, so with a burst of strength he pushed the blade deeper, deeper and deeper, centimeter after centimeter until his own chip spiked with life.

Electric force contracted his muscles, tightening his grip around the hilt of the knife, a feral growl escaped his broiled lips, white-hot air burning his tongue and air ways. Eren tried to move his wrist, hoping that his joint was still able to stand such a movement without shattering… he felt frail like a hollow trunk.

He caught the Shifter girl’s vital waves enhancer with the blade of his knife and tried to dislodge it from her nape. Forced the movement until his wrist broke under the consuming heat that griddled his bones. Didn’t know if he succeeded. The last coherent thing he knew was that somewhere, not too far off, his bonded human was in pain. So much pain. All because of him.

_Levi._


	10. Mirrors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the terrible, terrible delay!! I'm a disaster ;_;  
> Thousands of thanks to anyone that has the patience to wait for my late updates, or took the time to leave comments or kudos <3 you're my boost!

Commander Erwin Smith followed his head scientist along the medical wings of Legion with solemn stride, hands elegantly clasped behind his back and the always present Mike at his right. Hanji was guiding them through the room occupied by the hurt soldiers for the weekly visit: with the hell that happened after the Tamatave affair Erwin had asked to personally go and check the survivors’ conditions, instead of relying only on the usual reports by Hanji’s staff.

Erwin had a hard time to appease his superiors after the half disaster of that mission, but what they gained was worth the efforts: they had prevented a precious cargo from being lost in the Black Market and had been able to bring a true Shifter’s vital waves enhancer back to Hanji. Saying that the loony scientist had been on cloud nine was reductive: in their opinion that finding alone could open a whole new door for their researches, since till now Hanji had implanted only the Shifters’ partners’ chips.

Mike sniffed and curled his hooked nose, disturbed by the strong smells permeating the white tiled corridors. Erwin’s mouth angles curled, always amazed by the sensibility of his modified Titan. Since the teams returned from Tamatave, Mike had been irremovable and had accompanied Erwin to visit his friends in Levi’s squad and the kids of 104th. Mike Zacharius was a force to be recognized, comparable to the Ackermans, but the reports about Tamatave, about what happened to soldier Kirschtein, Bodt and Jaeger had really affected him.

The little Shifter girl’s death had been… unpleasant. Erwin would have preferred to bring her back and add her to his forces. Study her. _Protect_ her. Any Shifter they acquired was a little piece more to the greater puzzle, the big question about their creation. Sadly, they had only a bunch of those mysterious creatures to observe. After finding Eren he had thought they had a solid trail to follow and that very trail had led them to Tamatave, but… he sighed. It seemed the only thing he did in the last days.

Concentrating on the good thing, the Shifter girl’s chip was intact, that was a great accomplishment! The Shifters’ powerful healing process made sure that the chip was absorbed by their very body in matter of minutes, but that girl had been alone for a long time, not treated well enough from the ignorant smugglers, even the Veil useless. So she started to decompose, her body tried to reject the chip: Hanji said that probably that was due to the fact that the human chosen to be bonded to the Shifter girl wasn’t compatible, or already dead. Maybe he was one of the men Erwin’s soldier had killed during the mission…they didn’t have a way to find out, not with the slaughter perpetrated by Queen Bee and Titans. Killing the modified Titans had required to destroy their chip. Any data they could provide gone.

His soldiers had arrived just at the right moment to retrieve the Shifter girl’s chip. It was in good conditions and Erwin hoped that after a lot of observations and studies, Hanji could replicate it, or at least understand what were the characteristics for a human to successfully be made into a Shifter.

Erwin nodded distractedly to some staff members who passed and saluted. Passed in front of the double doors behind which Hanji’s Shifters’ laboratory was.

“How are Reiner and Bertoldt?” he asked.

“Fine!” answered Hanji, humming pleasantly “They’re returned to their quarters at the beginning of this week, as you already know from my report. We kept them immersed in the stabilization liquid for a week, the Omega Shifter’s heat was too strong to be stabilized only by his Alpha. They both sustained a lot of damage during the last mission, so to prevent Reiner’s rut, I thought better safe than sorry. Ymir said that they’re running Bert’s heat out in their rooms, now. Everything is under control there,” they wiggled their eyebrows expressively.

Mike chuckled and nodded satisfied: he knew what meant dealing with an Alpha Shifter’s rut caused by their mate’s strong heat. Some experiences you have to only face once in your life and that would be enough.

“Very well done,” agreed Erwin “And what about the Special Operation Squad?”

This time Mike answered “They’re almost ready to start their daily routine again. Captain Ackerman discussed with me their arrangements and we both thought it wiser to give them two weeks of leave. They’re coping. Like always,” Mike tone was low and quiet, but Erwin had learnt to read through it. The Spec Op Squad was indeed made of special individuals, picked personally by Levi Ackerman, but this battle took a toll on them, too.

He didn’t ask about the 104th brave kids. Didn’t ask about Levi and his Titan. He would have seen them soon.

Imposing eyebrows lowered over his crystal blue eyes and Erwin pressed two fingers over his right temple. Besides his soldiers’ health, he had been pushing and pulling Legion higher ups for the last two weeks: those ignorant swine couldn’t recognize a success even if it came in the semblance of a train wreck right in their faces. He’d have preferred to keep the little Shifter girl’s affair a secret, but since their hostages had revealed to be totally in the dark about what they were doing, why and for whom, he was forced to share the information. 

Sometimes one had to give the barking dog a bone. Now he and his teams had their financers’ approval and respect, but he already knew that that came by the cost of having a lot of nosy idiots coming to sniff around at the less appropriate moment.

And Commander Erwin Smith would have to smile and welcome them with open arms. Leave it to Levi to play the grouchy, threatening role. The blond man thought they were lucky nobody had already come to meddle into their affairs.

So the Commander had focused on convincing the mandatory of the mission to meet him, the one who paid Legion to interfere with the exchange in Tamatave. The man was a coward, knew that Legion was a wolves’ den, but Erwin was a charming guy and he knew it, so when the man had accepted and come to the meeting point, Mike managed to “convince” him to follow them to HQ. With a nice bag over his head and a nicer gag in his mouth. Smooth and neat, just like Erwin liked. Mike knew how to please him. Their prisoner was still closed in one of their isolation cells, he hoped time and starving would make Mike’s job easier.

The blonde smiled to himself, ignoring the chirping coming from Hanji in front of him, who directed their colleagues precisely with only a word or a gesture. “I see your self-satisfied grin on that face, Commander!” tutted the scientist “If you’re thinking that I cheated at strip poker last night, I want to remind you that it’s been your idea from the beginning and that I tried with all my might to stop you perverted boys-”

Erwin listened to their blabber, regarding them with a knowing look, bright eyes deceiving the world and smiling gallantly, unfazed by the idiocy coming from the scientist “Would you open the door for us, Hanji?” Mike snorted, amused, already used to his friends’ antics.

Hanji stopped and huffed, “You’re such a spoilsport. Levi’s more enjoyable to tease than you, but one day I will be able to get under your skin, too, your Majesty!” they opened the door of a room to the left.

“Mmh… ‘Your Majesty’, you say?” Erwin took his own chin between index and thumb “I think I could get used to the sound if it.”

Mike gave an earthy laugh and followed Erwin into the room, where Sasha and Connie were seated near Marco Bodt’s bed and said guy was patiently patting his hand over a shattered Jean Kirschtein, who had pulled his chair right to the bedside, and was actually resting his head over his friend’s nearest leg.

“Oh my god don’t say it, you already have the ego of a prima ballerina, heaven help us!” complained Hanji, following the two giant blondes into the tiny room and closing the door behind them. Now the sterile space seemed too crowded. “Now, now, how are my babies?” they asked, eyes sliding over the machinery tied to Marco, his vitals expressed in numbers and incomprehensible statistics.

Connie and Sasha jumped to their feet, saluting their superiors with a fist over their own heart, the other behind their backs. “Commander, Sir!” Erwin made them rest with a flick of his hand.

“We’re fine, thank you!” said Sasha, gifting Hanji with one of her smiles.

“Wonderful, my dear, wonderful. And you, my boy?” asked again the scientist, this time looking directly to Marco.

The freckled soldier cleared his voice and nodded “Better. This morning the doctors adjusted the focus of my right eye,” he blinked and squeezed the right eyelid. Then carded again his fingers in Jean’s hair, who was, to a more attentive analysis, softly snoring with his head over crossed arms. “It’s been worse for him,” Ended Marco apologetically.

“U-uh, I betcha. Guy is still adjusting to your new situation,” nodded Hanji, inspecting Marco’s right eye with the little light positioned at the end of a pen “pupillary reaction is very good. Any image out of focus or overlapping with the other eye?”

Marco shook his head, “Not after this morning adjustments. Jean is okay, too, only had nausea and a slight headache, after they played with my sight…”

“It’s common, don’t worry,” said Erwin, nodding toward Mike “I had the same problem when they implanted my arm prosthesis,“ he rose his right arm and flexed his rigid, gloved fingers “after a while you two’ll learn how to compensate each other’s losses. Practice makes one perfect.”

Marco stared at Erwin’s artificial arm: of course he knew the Commander had been injured during a mission, years before his arrival at Legion, and had been since bonded to a modified Titan, but didn’t know the details and seeing the man now, one could never tell his arm had been substituted. He felt a little relieved. Since he woke up, after the incident with the Shifter girl, he had done a lot of progress: in the beginning he couldn’t speak, for the right side of his face had been heavily damaged by the Shifter’s heat, as well as his right arm. Now he regained the use of his artificial limb, even if it was still a bit stiff and foreign, and the only trace of the damage on his face was a long burning scar that run from his upper eyelid and down till the curve of his jaw, passing from his temple ad crossing his eye. It was brighter than the rest of the skin, and it pulled a little unnaturally the unmarred flesh, giving the impression that the right part of his visage was fixed in glass: still and less expressive than the natural counterpart, vitreous gaze and all. Still, he considered himself lucky. Even his eye, that was completely melted because of the scorching heat, was replaced: now he could see thanks to a sophisticated camera hidden into natural-like prosthesis of the same color as his other eye. Days ago he couldn’t even open his eyes if it was too light and out of focus images made him puke his stomach out. The only clue of the change was perhaps the red reflex over his right iris when light caught it just right.

And for all of this he had to thank Jean.

The boy had accepted to become his bonded human and bear his current injuries as well as the future ones. Sharing their fate, in a way. Sharing their lives. Sharing their sins and faults.

Hanji and their team had immediately proceeded to turn Marco into a modified Titan to give him a chance to live. They had implanted in him a chip calibrated on Jean’s vital waves, that screamed at him _heal, be fine, please, live_!

When he had awaken and seen Jean crying like a baby by his side, repeating long string of ‘sorry’, Marco found out what had happened to them. At first Marco had secretly cried thinking about the weight Jean had taken upon himself with that vow, that sacrifice. In a way he had condemned Marco to it as well, saving his life. The freckled boy had been bitter about it at the beginning, but the more he noticed the relief in Jean’s tawny eyes every time he looked at him, he really couldn’t blame him anymore. Not when soldier Bodt and Kirschtein had seen so much, had grieved so much, had killed so much.

In a way, this could be seen as their atonement for all the horrible things they had done in their young lives. Life and destiny had put them in those circumstances, but still, they acted like the greedy creatures they were and chose their own survival upon others’.

They both had a hard time coming around all the changes that the decision comported. During the first days they shared too much sensations, their head a jumble of feelings and ideas, their vital waves still phasing. Those had been difficult times. Luckily they had all their squad at their back and In the blackest moments, Hanji’s sedatives.

And after everything, after seeing Jean begging for forgiveness for having chosen without knowing what Marco wanted, the freckled boy couldn’t do anything but hug him. Because even if now he was a sort of a freak, something unnatural and unknown, he was grateful he could still have time on this earth. The time that the young Shifter girl was denied. Time with his friends. Time with Jean. Time to make good use of this precious second chance.

And now his bonded human was soundly asleep, dark circles under his eyes, neck still bandaged and tubes of iv protruding from the tender hollow of his arm. Hanji had insisted on keeping the both of them under watch, said it was protocol for new modified Titans. Not to mention, with all the body modifications Marco went through to be saved.

Hanji chuckled, “Well, Commander, you’re right! Marco has a good healing rate, we’re very lucky that you two are so compatible, as you can see, you’ll come back as charming as before…maybe even more! People sigh and swoon over scars and a mysterious past!” they winked, laughing like the villain of a movie.

“Still!” they went on, stomping a foot on the ground “This doesn’t excuse the fact that you pups don’t respect my orders! Kirschtein doesn’t want to stay in his stupid room. Stupid Levi doesn’t want to stay in his stupid room either, or go fuck himself and do his duties; you two!” they pointed accusingly toward Connie and Sasha “And your stupid snacks that you keep for yourselves without even offering me some!…You’re playing with fire here, I can’t work in this state, I can’t! go to your room!”

Sasha hugged her bag of chips tighter and turned slightly towards the wall, protecting it from Hanji.

“How are Captain Levi and Eren?” asked Marco, his fingers stopped caressing Jean’s head. “I can’t move from here but Jean’s gone to see how Eren was and… is he still asleep?”

“I’m afraid that’s the case, “ replied Erwin, taking two steps toward Marco’s bed. “He seems physically fine, his parameters are good and Levi’s completely healed too… but we don’t understand what’s wrong with him. Do you have idea on what could have happened to him?”

Marco shook his head, discouraged. Why was he fine and Eren still unconscious? “I don’t remember very clearly…as I already told you, I tried to take the Shifter girl’s chip with Eren’s knife, but as soon as I pierced her skin I was hit by this wave of hot smoke. Connie told me that Eren was the fastest to react and broke my hand so that I could let the hilt of the knife go. Then he took my place.”

“And you were lucky, because Eren’s a Shifter and he’s alive thanks to his healing abilities. If he hadn’t acted so fast, you could have died,” said Hanji with a rueful smile.

Marco shrugged “I know, but… I’m sorry. I’m sorry he’s still unconscious and that he had to shoulder all that alone. Emotionally, too.”

Erwin brow furrowed “What do you mean?”

Marco shrugged “I think that seeing the young girl in such conditions must have been worse for him, since he could relate to a certain level… maybe when he tried to retrieve the vital waves enhancer he felt… something more than just physical pain. Maybe he felt the pain of the girl echoing through their chip…” Marco made a strangled sound that was only a sad imitation of a laugh “I don’t know what I’m saying, but this thing in my neck is so sensible to Jean’s vital waves, and I’m not even a Shifter. I don’t wanna think about what Eren felt in that moment!”

Hanji’s head cocked slightly on a side, their glasses shining with the white light of the room. The manic look on their features gave them an eerie air, like they were the broken doll of some horror movie trailer. “What did you just say, Bodt?” Hanji murmured, still distracted by whatever was running through their brain.

Marco blinked and looked confused at Connie and Sasha, who shrugged and shook their head respectively. So the freckled boy repeated “I said that maybe he felt something more-!” he was silenced by a howling Hanji, who threw themselves over Marco’s bed and squished his cheeks, laughing like they just witnessed Levi prancing around Legion in a pink tutu. Well, that was a plan for another day. “You! You, my dear boy, are a genius!” they had read the reports again and again, but now, thanks to Marco’s precise words, Hanji had an epiphany.

Hanji’s scream and sweet weight wake Jean by surprise, making the two toned haired guy yelp, flail his arms uselessly and finally crash from the chair onto the floor. Jean jumped back on his feet again, alarmed, and looked around himself with eyes out of their orbit “What?! What the fuck’s happening?”

Hanji laughed again and pirouetted toward Erwin, leaving Marco massaging his own cheeks and Jean trying to avoid a heart attack. “Erwin, my dear friend! You’re the luckiest manther on this earth!” Hanji pirouetted and rested their hands over the Commander’s shoulders, raising their right leg in an inelegant pose, while lifting on their tippy toes.

Mike thought about the hippo dancing with the poor crocodile in Fantasia. He snorted from his nose and laughed.

“And may I ask why, Hanji?” inquired Erwin, not really masking his annoyance behind politeness. That was the first time in his life that someone called him a manther…other than his raven Captain, but what the hell! He had never given a fuck when Levi insulted him for being too soft on the new recruits or their investors, saying that he could pass for a sugar daddy, with all his polite smile and tactful act…but now even Hanji had played along that fantasy! And Mike was shamelessly laughing with a hand over his stomach.

“Because,” carried on Hanji, vibrating with emotion “I understood what happened to Eren! And this means that I know what we can do to wake him up!” they left Erwin’s shoulder to storm outta the room shrieking a “Follow me, my stalwarts!”

Mike followed the bespectacled freak, still laughing his heart out. Erwin saw them leaving the room, eyes still bigger than normal. Then he cleared his voice, readjusted his blouse and with a menacing, gloved finger pointed to his soldiers, very Levi-like, said “Not a damn word about this, or you’ll be all put directly under Hanji’s orders for the next year.”

“Sir!” Connie, Sasha, Marco and a still confused Jean saluted their Commander.

**

He had enough of the depressing yellow-greyish walls, with all their cracks and small indentures by now committed to memory. When he moved his fingers to the tepid wrist he was holding, he could feel the _regular and steady rhythm_. Annoyingly so. The pulse kept alive those veins and those muscles. The heart pumped red life through those limbs and the beeping was still fucking _rhythmic_. Every breath was measured, calm, useful. Thick eyebrows were relaxed over closed eyes, but in the last months he had learnt to understand when Eren dreamt: and now he wasn’t dreaming. He was only there, like the first time they  met: he was there, existing only physically.

Levi looked at the half consumed cigarette between his fingers, amazed at the speed the wind was turning it to ashes. He had opened a small window to breathe some fresh air and was looking (more like envying) some squads’ drill in one of Legion training area. He had almost forgotten how a smoke tasted like, the bitterness lingering in his mouth, the sensation of velvet poison invading his lungs and smoothing his brain. It was something to _do_ , and that was enough, as the question that had plagued Levi’s mind for the last fifteen days popped again on the surface, not quite reaching his throat, choosing to transform instead into a frustrated growl: if everything was alright, _why in the living fucking hell wasn’t the brat waking up_?!

He had tried to remember what happened during their last mission, tried to dissect every action, every passed order, recalled every fallen comrade. Didn’t find anything useful to understand why his Titan was sleeping like a log.

Levi Ackerman brought the cigarette to his mouth and left it there, hanging precariously between thin chapped lips, resting his arms over the banister. While his brain let all the logical thoughts lift to the sky with the smoke, a funny thought came to his mind and unexpectedly made him chuckle (such an alien motion): when Eren recovered the vital waves enhancer from the Shifter girl, the heat that invested him had burnt his eyebrows and part of his hair… Hanji had to cut it after they put him in bed…it smelled awfully, like burnt chicken. And Hanji was no hair stylist, yet Levi had to admit that shorter hair gave Eren a much tamer look, more innocent… he sorta liked it. The brat used to keep it longer, bangs covering his expressive brow and eyes, those unique mirrors that observed the world from behind a chocolate brown curtain…yea, and he was a damn sappy. It was the shitty chip fault, that only made him feel like he was shouting against a wall, the echo of his voice rolling uselessly against its rough surface, with no way to go beyond its bulk.

Only a monster could do that. Only a _Titan_ could make human walls tumbling down. And Eren had done it with slight effort, without even wanting to. Levi inhaled from the cigarette, thinking about what could have happened if Eren had intended to _really_ breach Levi’s walls. What would have become of him.

The man felt broken as it was. _Damn._

When he heard three set of steps behind him, Levi didn’t turn: Armin and Mikasa had just left, the ravenette had kept the Shifter company throughout the day, since Levi still had duties to carry on and Erwin forced him to stay away from the hospital wing for at least a few hours a day… stupid blondie didn’t understand that the distance only worsened the empty sensation echoing through the chip… if Levi _saw_ his bonded Titan breathing, that could make him feel slightly better.

So when Hanji called him, Levi only grunted in response. The fact that they were followed by Erwin and Mike wasn’t really a surprise.

“How you doing?” asked informally Erwin, but with only a sniff Mike was able to tell that nothing had changed.

Hanji was the reckless one who invaded Levi’s personal space, leaning against his right shoulder and fixing him while adjusting their glasses, just to be sure they had them on “You’re smoking?!” they turned toward the blond duo “He’s smoking. Erwin, he doesn’t smoke! He’s too much of a clean freak to be breathing tar!”

“He does, from time to time,” replied Erwin, leaning against the wall.

“When he’s exceptionally stressed,” added Mike with a grin.

“Thanks god I’m so lucky to have three mothers. Mother hen,” he pointed Mike, “mother Monster” obviously Hanji “and motherfucker,” ended the raven in his monotonous voice, he grinned towards Erwin, who reciprocated with a smooth middle finger and a roll of his eyes. “And unless you’re here with something vaguely worth hearing, I’ll save you time and go to my room without dinner. Goodbye and fuck you.”

“Oh my god, you’re such a drama queen, Lev!” puffed Hanji, grabbing his arm and pulling him against the banister again.

“Put that thing out and listen,” suggested Erwin, eyes shining mischievously.

“Actually no, don’t. You look sexy. You rock the bad boy look, Lev,” Said Hanji, appraising him.

“Actually yes, do it. Smells like shit,” Grimaced Mike, turning his head.

Levi gagged “Stop that immediately, you perv, you’re sexual harassing me with that obscene look on your face! And in front of my boss! Why can’t you leave me alone?”

“Levi, you’re the epitome of alone.”

“Shush Erwin, I’m imagining a blonde, smoking hot Levi, with tattoos and piercings…”

Levi took a safe step back from Hanji and could have sworn that their glasses were clouded from steam.

“All right, I got your look for the next undercover mission!” squealed Hanji, Erwin let his head fall backwards, laughing at Levi’s horror. Mike was seriously studying the raven’s figure, nodding along the scientist’s suggestions, almost understanding them.

Just when Hanji couldn’t keep at bay their enthusiasm anymore and went to tackle Levi, Erwin spoke again, knowing that if he didn’t intervene now, the situation would be soon escalating to a real fray. “Listen here, Captain Gremlin, Hanji may have an idea about what happened to your Shifter.”

“What?!” exclaimed Levi, still trying to remove Hanji’s arms from his midriff. “Oi, is it true?” he slapped the brunette scientist on their head “what are you waiting for? Spit it out!”

“If they’re right, will you accept the blonde bad boy look for the next undercover mission?” asked Mike, stomping over Levi’s discarded cigarette butt still burning on the floor.

Levi let his head fall back and groaned like a dying elk, arms going slack along his sides “Dear mother Theresa, you’re worse than leeches… I will, for fuck’s sake, now can we _please_ move on with the serious shit?!”

“Oh, the fourth mother!”

“Aren’t you a lucky one,” Mike and Erwin exchanged an amused look. The raven would have gladly jumped from the seventh floor if the lethal trio didn’t lure him with news about Eren’s awakening.

Probably today was _fuck-with-Levi-and-drive-him-nuts_ day and he didn’t know. The world sucked. People sucked. Friends who had known you for years sucked the most. He remembered when he was alone and right now, he highly missed those times.

Back to Eren’s room, Hanji made the usual round checking the Shifter’s vitals. Once assessed nothing was wrong, they cleared their voice ad began pacing the room, illustrating their theories. Erwin and Mike stood like greek statues, while Levi took his usual seat near Eren’s bed, his right hand lay over the Shifter’s left wrist out of habit.

“So,” Hanji began ”the Bodt boy said some interesting things. He said that they lost contact with Eren the moment he reached the Shifter girl’s chip: he extracted it and went limp, like something made him short circuit. This emerged from Kirschtein’s and Springer’s reports, too. What I didn’t consider…” Hanji giggled, shaking their head in shame, but excited nonetheless “is Shifters’ very essence!” they turned towards the others, expecting some sort of reaction…like they were following the scientist’s absurd logic.

If you listened real close, you could hear the crickets singing from inside Levi’s head. He didn’t stand to kick the glassed freak only thanks to the hand he was holding, the need for proximity instinctive and strong. Erwin intervened, “Please elaborate, Hanji.”

“Don’t you get it?!” Hanji fisted their hands in their hair, pulling it, “Okay, I’ll try to say it so you idiots can follow me,” they huffed, ignoring the affronted protests from Mike ”for a moment, think about Shifters like some kind of super sophisticated machines… or very expensive cellphones, each connecting with their own base through the vital waves enhancer. Every Shifter works on different waves, so that to a certain human corresponds a single Shifter, and only that one. Annie’s connected to Mikasa like Eren’s connected to Levi. They cannot switch their bonded human, not after the vital waves enhancer has been matched with the right human’s waves and absorbed by their body. However, we know that Bert and Reiner are a little more unstable, since their case is a little singular…” Hanji turned toward Levi “Do you remember when Reiner tried to stabilize Eren’s light heat?”

Levi snorted like a bull, draping his free arm over the backrest of his chair, tightening subconsciously his hand around Eren’s wrist, still irked by the memory. “You mean when he tried to assault the brat?” It happened the first days he was bonded to the young Titan… he really had a hard time in the gym to steam off the inane anger that reddened his sight and Hanji had to put the Alpha Shifter and his mate in that strange tub in the laboratories… once the raven saw what Reiner had to go through, part of the rage evaporated. Until he saw big and brawny again: Eren didn’t know, but the Captain had made his point during a particular hard drill, making sure that Reiner would give _his_ Omega Shifter a very wide berth…okay, maybe Mikasa knew. And obviously that poker faced Shifter of her. And of course Erwin suspected. Well, it seemed that from that particular incident, a lot of people in Legion knew that Eren was _fucking off limits_. “Yea, I remember,” he replied in his monotone, “what about it?”

Hanji grinned mischievously. Naturally, they knew everything and anything going on in Legion. Levi didn’t want to think about it... he didn’t put above them to even know how many times each of them went to the bathroom. Levi shivered.

“That was an example of how Shifters are attracted by unstable waves. If they’re a dominant dynamic, like Reiner or Ymir, they try to protect –well, that was more like assault, but don’t focus on the details- and try to impose themselves on the weaker Shifter. In that case, our Eren here. During the Tamatave shitfest –Erwin admit it, it was a clusterfuck,” the scientist shut the Commander up with an eloquent movement of their hand.

“So, in this case, Jaeger was the stable dynamic, the Shifter girl was like a thirsty dying flower. I think that the moment he touched her vital waves enhancer, the girl tried to connect to Eren’s waves. But they weren’t compatible, so she died and Eren’s chip is now calibrated onto other waves. The Shifters instinctively tried to match their wavelength, but couldn’t. All we have to do is retune Eren on Levi’s waves!”

One moment of silence. Then two. Mike probably blinked under his thick bangs, but Levi couldn’t be sure, because you know, he was busy being astonished. Utterly shocked by the absurdity and yet simplicity behind Eren’s condition.

“So…” He licked his lips, unsure. Levi’s features were stony as ever, but inside he was trembling with a strange excitement, as if something in the deepest of his being was telling him that yes, that was the solution, that it was time to bring Eren back, to reach out for his rightful mate. Finally his waves wouldn’t bounce on walls of silence any longer, hungry for a voice, a presence stolen. “What- what can we do? What have I to..?” The Omega Shifter belonged to Levi, like Levi belonged to Legion, in the same way like one returns to his home: it was a deep and natural connection, something that could be felt but not completely understood. Instinctive, in its truth. From the moment their waves were created to resound together.

“Do you need to take him to your laboratory?” asked Mike, thinking about the strange machineries in which they used to put Reiner and Bert to reconnected their waves.

Hanji’s refined eyebrows crinkled in thought, “I usually resort to that method with Reiner and Bertholdt, but those two are a category of their own… I wouldn’t risk to put Eren into my machines right away, it could be too hard in his case. It could bring to addiction, much like it is for the other two Shifters. I want to preserve his cycles as natural as possible, besides, we have Levi, the best example of bore, routine and stability! You remember when we talked about a Shifter’s stabilization, right?”

Levi felt three pair of eyes burning him and he felt the need to clear his voice. “Obviously.”

Hanji grinned manically and turned on their heels, “Of course. Now, we’ll leave you two alone, come find me when Eren’s awake! Crank it up, tiger!”

“Fuck you, useless four eyes!” roared Levi, while Erwin and Mike followed Hanji, amusement and perplexity on their faces.

“I want to know everything! You know I’ll find a way to make you spill it, old man!” cackled Hanji from the corridor and the raven was already on his feet ready to go and strangle them, but Mike closed the door of the room, effectively isolating him once again.

A string of finely selected curses came from the Captain’s mouth; he kicked his chair. Then, as the paranoid he was, he suppressed the urgency to check the room for hidden cameras or microphones… He breathed deeply, steadying himself and sat on the bed, thinking about everything he knew about Shifters. Well, it wasn’t much. Hanji had tried to infect him with their same interest regarding Titans and what’s not, but the raven hadn’t half the patience of that Berner guy who always dealt with the glasses freak.

But he did understood that he had to reconnect in some not creepy way with Eren. Ah, the brat was the king of creepiness, since he had already took advantage of him while sleeping. So Levi thought about the first time he saw Eren connected to him, saw his yes opening for the first time to look at him through the fog and fear of the same destiny that had befallen the Shifter girl… remembered the sleepless nights, the first time Eren landed a good punch to Auruo’s snout, when he outrun Erd and Gunther in the running, or simply when Levi couldn’t close his eyes for all he would see under his lids were lost faces and lost chances and the kid had stayed with him scrubbing the same floor till the break of dawn.

Levi didn’t know what kind of story they were writing, or what expected them the day after… but surely he had some kind of connection to this weird, stubborn and full of surprises young man.

He brushed back some of Eren’s short bangs “Stupid brat,” he murmured fondly. He tried not to feel like a creep, caressing Eren like he was doing: delicately tracing high cheeks, the strong jaw, the relaxed column of his neck. Placed his palms on that lifeless face and bent a little more, touching with his forehead and the point of his nose the other’s.

“Wake up, or I swear I’ll kick you awake,” whispered and as close as he was, Levi could hear both Eren’s soft breathing and the small voice of his romantic part screaming at him to just end the agony, grow a pair and -too bad Levi wasn’t a total loser and had no intention of doing _anything_ while the Titan was passed out. _Oh, no sir_ , he wanted those peacock green pools planted on him in that moment, just to give him pay back for all the times the brunet had indulged while he was asleep.

The raven wasn’t so deluded as to think that the brat would wake with a Disney kiss, so now he found himself struggling to come up with a good idea: Hanji always says that Shifters operate on two levels. The more intimate, which was the vital waves, known only by their bonded human; and the physical one, that showed to the world what was happening inside the Titan, from the heat, to a coma like the one of his Shifter, Levi guessed. When you can’t reach your Shifter through one level, use the other. “Well, you never make things easy for me, do you?” Levi tried to forget that usually irreverent mouth and pass instead to the neck, warmer and retaining Eren’s own scent even after all the time passed in the aseptic room, where his life was still secretly pulsing, silent just under the surface, but for this reason, as inviting as the song of a mermaid. Once made the decision, instincts seemed to slowly take over and Levi allowed them freedom. Seemed like he could breathe a little lighter and, strangely enough, he wanted to breathe _Eren_. So he lean on and rested his forehead over the other’s collar bone. He recognized the scent that invested his senses, lulling in familiar quietness. Levi shifted and  trailed the point of his nose along his Shifter’s cheek, feeling the deep cuts going from his lower eyelid to the ears, cradled his head with delicate hands and stopped again in correspondence if his pulse, oblivious to the vulnerability he was showing in that moment.

Levi couldn’t really hear anything, so the only way to feel was to lay his lips on the soft skin, sensing the life palpitating underneath, the vibrations created from the blood pumped by the heart. In that moment his mouth seemed nearer to his heart, than his fingertips. The raven’s muscles stiffened, freezing him in place, causing the man to increase the pressure of his mouth on Eren’s neck. The more he felt the throb of the brunet’s life, the more he felt the need to extract it from that still body and _see_ with his own eyes that Eren’s blood was still red and beautiful and _alive_.

Hanji’s words about reestablishing their connection resurfaced from the jumble of Levi’s mind and he abandoned himself over a tanned body, helpless, like an autumn leaf to the ground; like freezing snowflakes on someone’s warm tongue; like a stone to gravity, the Captain surrendered to the call of the vital waves enhancer. He opened his hungry mouth to _feel_ even more, to _taste_ more, and closed pointed teeth on Eren, biting him deep enough to draw blood on the soft spot where the neck joined the shoulder, his jaw clenching hard around supple skin.

On his tongue the warm, viscous liquid tasted like iron, salt and maybe something else. Levi instinctively swallowed a few drops of Eren’s dark red blood and growled deep from his throat, pulling Eren tight against him, deepening the bite. The younger, so abandoned and still in the embrace one instant before, jerked into the raven’s arms and the more Levi tightened his hold, the more his Shifter seemed to react.

It looked like it wasn’t Levi who was making Eren bleed, or holding him impossibly close, almost depriving him of air, but the opposite: it seemed like the Captain was actually instilling strength in the Titan, infusing him with his own life, for the brunet limbs began to tremble with adrenaline and repressed force. Levi felt something pushing and thrashing inside his ribcage, pulling and opening every bone to reach his bonded Titan, annihilating every sane thought and incinerating his mind with the white hot spark of his chip finally reconnecting with Eren’s. The two vital waves enhancers linked and short circuited in a white explosion, like the exploding creak of a whip, stupefying their reason and blinding them behind closed eyes. Such power was contained in their bond.

Like ricocheting from a shot, Eren jerked and his eyes opened, back arched against the mattress and a high pitched whine filled the previously silent room, in response to Levi’s growl. Levi registered immediately the change, still mouthing lightly where the pulse was closer to the surface, thirsty like a mad man in a desert. But instead of drinking and taking life from the fount beneath him, he let instead his whole being free to flow toward the boy with no restraint.

With every suck and every moan, with every rough caress and tug, their limbs tangled together and so did their vital waves, twined once again, buzzing with charged energy, finally balancing them again.

Levi shivered when Eren’s arms wounded around his body and under his shirt. With more tugs the brunet managed to roll them so that the Captain was now the one lying on his back, pinned under the boy suddenly sparkling with energy. The Shifter’s eyes were a clear glass of liquid amber, gaze unfocused, but so very lively. He licked the center of his upper lip, breathing hard and studying Levi like he was the pray.

“Eren-“ the Captain tried to say, between pants and the salty copper taste lingering in his mouth, but the next words were soon lost behind gritted teeth, because Eren had fallen over him and, thanks to his taller form, effectively coiled around the smaller man, tracing Levi’s pale collar bone with his tongue, up to his neck tendons, eliciting a gasp from the raven and then transmuting it to a gurgle right when Eren’s teeth raked that pale skin. The following instant the Shifter was carving his possess over Levi in red.

The last of Levi’s coherent thoughts was that his Titan had come back to him, because even if Eren was not in his right mind, he had returned to some of his usual self. Maybe Eren’s actions were strange and inexplicable, but the waves coming from him were unmistakably Eren’s. The brunet’s hand gripped Levi’s shoulders from under his back, rendering him helpless against his bite. The force that the Shifter was using to clench his jaws on the raven’s flesh and to pull him as close as physically possible made Levi delirious with shock, sudden tiredness and _want_.

“You… horny brat!” gritted Levi between his teeth, as the brunet started to grind against him, his skin damp with sweat and hot with fever. Somewhere distantly in his mind, Levi realized that this was what Hanji called _heat_. And Eren, still debilitated and not in possess of his – _already fucking scarce_ \- brain faculties, had succumbed to the need.

Levi felt drunk with the lust drenched waves coming from the chip, Eren’s humid tongue in the crook of his neck, _sucking the hell out of him_ , and the damn sleep that had finally caught up with him. He felt vaguely aware of the grunts coming from Eren’s throat and the noises escaping his own lips. He wondered if he could still feel ashamed.

His mother would be ashamed of him. Hanji probably. His uncle, definitely. And he’d definitely kill him, too.

As if Eren could perceive Levi was having really strange thoughts while his gorgeous Shifter was wide awake and grinding against him, he bit and thrust harder. Levi lost himself between the friction of their clothes and the warmth coming from Eren’s body and the overflowing sensations electrifying his spine. After a moment of white suspension and blissful numbness, he heard Eren moan then purr in his ear, licking away the blood. Levi probably snorted, not even aware of his own climax if not mirrored by the gratification coming through the chip.

His Omega Shifter was satisfied for now.

 _Hey brat_ , he thought, _welcome back._

Eren regarded him with impossibly deep and shining honey eyes. He smirked and curled around Levi, pressed against his human like he was safety, letting the familiar warm buzz of the chip lull them to a natural sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally the next chapters will be lighter and of shamless indulgence for me!!...guess why?! *_*

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!!


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